Tasting - Crane Lake Merlot

Crane Lake 
Merlot
Region/Country: California, USA
Year: 2011
Price: $5
With food?: Yes, pasta.

Review from Cheap Wine Reviews: Very wet, with almost no structure. The second glass I had was chilled, which was much better in my opinion. Very light oak.

All-in-all, if you want to impress someone with a large quantity of wine on your premises, Crane Lake wine is the wine to do it with! Otherwise, I would try something like Marcus James or “2 buck-Chuck” that are in the same price range.

My review: This is my second Merlot I have tried, so I tried to compare this one to the Sutter Home Merlot. This one was a lot weaker than the Sutter Home. It had very little smell or taste of alcohol and wasn't very acidic, so it was very easy to drink - much easier for me than most reds. It was still fairly flavorful; it had a distinct bitter berry/grape taste. It also wasn't as dry as the last one. I had it with pasta and I thought it was a good match. It was also very, very cheap, which was a plus.