Price: $9
Maker: LBD Vineyards, Mendocino County, California
Varietal: Merlot
Packaging: 750 ml bottle, artificial cork
Alcohol: 13.5%
Our Rating: 8 out of 10
Little Black Dress Merlot 2004 is one of three wines from LBD Vineyards that are apparently aimed at the female wine buying market. It has a nice, stylish bottle, and a perfectly black cork. It has an intriguing aroma, with ripe berry notes tinged with vanilla. The flavor is fruity – cherry notes predominate, with a finish that adds spice and oak. It’s a simple wine that will appeal to the wine drinker who is looking for something beyond wine coolers and sweet wines, but isn’t ready for, say, a big cabernet.
Will Little Black Dress wines appeal to women? Perhaps, unless LBD (an effort of Brown-Forman) seems to be trying too hard. If you put a label on something that says, “this wine will appeal to women,” it might be less effective than a more subtle approach. Indeed, the Wonder Branding blog that discusses marketing to women calls the idea “questionable.” The Little Black Dress website is fairly sparse, and doesn’t give any indication of frequent updating.
Still, perhaps Little Black Dress Merlot has a future… the packaging is attractive and the wine is very accessable, in the sense that its fruity nature is undemanding and pleasant enough.
The packaging intrigued me enough to want to try it. The little black dress did shout, “I’m being marketed to women” and I loved it. I think a lot of my friends avoid very cheap wines so strangely enough a higher price would have lured me more–initially.
In the end taste is everything. I was in the mood for a shiraz. But I still decided to research the The Little Black Dress merlot on the internet.
Someone gave me a bottle of Little Black Dress as
a Christmas present and it’s the best Merlot I’ve
ever had…no bite, fantastic flavor. Where can I
get this in Monterey or Carmel? Thanks.
please email me the retail stores in the new york city area where i can purchase the lbd merlot. thank our–gerry klinger
I recently found two 2008 bottles of your Merlot that had red corks in them and was wondering if it was some kind of promotional thing. I have been enjoying the fine taste of this great wine for years.
Thanks for a great product.
Richard Madore