Box Wines
A wine blog with news and reviews of affordable wines

Price: $2
Maker: Bella Sera, Modesto, California
Variety: Merlo
Packaging: 187 ml Bottle, screw cap
Alcohol: 12.5%
Our Rating: 7.5 out of 10

We heard an ad for Bella Sera wines, and decided to hunt some up. A diligent search turned up only a four-pack of 187 ml bottles of Bella Sera Merlot 2005. Although the mini bottles are glass, not plastic, this packaging didn’t bode well for this Merlot being great. The nose had mild leather, clove, and berry notes. The flavor, though, was rather thin. There wasn’t much fruit - weak cherries were dominated by oaky tannins, with a slightly peppery finish. We found that letting this wine breathe brought out its flavor a bit, but the packaging isn’t really designed for that. It’s a single-serving screw cap, and we expect that the wine will almost always be poured and consumed immediately after opening.

I wish I had been able to find a full-scale bottle of the Bella Sera Merlot. There seemed to be potential with this wine from Italy, but the little bottle we tried didn’t impress. The Bella Sera website has a section called Beautiful Evenings with entertaining ideas, wine pairings, and more.

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