AR2 Malbec/Cabernet Sauvignon Blend, Dave Phinney/Orin Swift, Mendoza Argentina, $17.99
Everybody’s all about Bourbon these days, from boutique brands to hard-to-find gems. Like wine, Bourbon has a strikingly large range of flavor profiles (really, if you doubt me, drop by one of the Bardstown Bourbon Club tastings at the Golden Rose and line up 5 or 6 brands side-by-side). One of these Bourbon profiles is what I call a flamethrower – a high alcohol, bold clove & cinnamon flavored tour de force that blasts a singular dominating taste throughout the stroke. Consequently, if you’re a Bourbon person looking for a wine that blasts you like Booker’s, then I’ve got a great wine for you to try the next time you char a few Diamond Bar bratwursts on the grill: The Locations series AR Blend from the partnership of Orin Swift & Dave Phinney, with a concentrated blueberry and currant flavor profile standing on the shoulders of the new oak it was aged in.
If you’ve heard of Swift, it’s likely due to his uber popular high-end domestic wines The Prisoner or Papillion, and if you’ve had the fortune of trying either of those efforts, the Locations series style is not far off. The idea is to find small vineyards in vaunted wine making regions, in this case the Andean foothills of Mendoza, Argentina, and make interesting American-style blends on foreign soil. Peek around the shop and you’ll see a few of their other efforts marked boldly with the same abbreviated country code labels: F and E designating other Locations. Clearly, a famous winemaker is lending his provenance more than his own hand to this mid-priced effort, but if you’re a flamethrower fan looking for something bold, grab this bottle and go big.
