Price: $9
Maker: Concannon Vineyard, Livermore & San Luis Obispo, California
Varietal: Merlot
Packaging: 750 ml bottle, natural cork
Alcohol: 13.5%
Our Rating: 8.7 out of 10
Concannon Central Coast Merlot 2006 starts with a big licorice nose, and its flavor features raspberry, strawberry, and a bit of tart cherry. It’s not an overly complex Merlot, but it’s eminently drinkable. Concannon wines tend to hit our “sweet spot,” so to speak – big and fruity – and this one comes pretty close. The last vintage we tasted of this wine was Concannon Central Coast Merlot 2003, and it was a very nice wine too.
The Concannon website doesn’t have cute animals, flash games, or other fussy stuff. Nevertheless, you’ll find a good description of their full lineup of wines. The wine hasn’t drawn much blog attention, but we found a few mentions. The Wine Cask Blog tried the 2004 vintage and liked it a log, posting that the wine “is a nice value even at twice the price…really quite tasty and easily quaffable.”
We hope to be reporting on some more Concannon juicy red wines soon – this one was a nice treat.