Price: $9
Maker: CA’Montini, Calmasino, Italy
Varietal: Merlot, Cabernet Blend
Packaging: 750 ml bottle, natural cork
Alcohol: 12%
Our Rating: 8 out of 10
We’re suckers for wines with interesting bottles, and the Ferrari red opaque bottle of the non-vintage Luna di Luna Merlot – Cabernet is indeed striking. The wine is perhaps a bit less so. The aroma is pleasant enough, with spice, licorice, and berry notes. It’s a light to medium bodied wine. The flavor hints of blackberry and cherry, but oak and spice are more dominant. The finish is quite peppery indeed. This 60% Merlot – 40% Cabernet blend is labeled as a “Table Wine”, and might serve that purpose. I’d prefer a bit more fruit in a wine like this, but for those preferring a more European wine perhaps the Luna di Luna will do the trick.
The brand makes the interesting claim to be the “original blend” on their website:
Luna di Luna is the original wine blend. Introduced in 1996 with the Chardonnay/Pinot Grigio, our goal was to blend delicious grapes to produce a wine that offers something beyond the everyday. With the addition of the Merlot/Cabernet in its red bottle, Chardonnay/Sauvignon in green, Sparkling in blue, Sangiovese/Merlot in purple and the Pinot Grigio/Pinot Bianco in yellow, Luna di Luna has a full line of award-winning wines for every occasion. Our combination of innovative blends, striking packaging and value pricing has made Luna di Luna one of the fastest-growing wines in the world.
If you want a bottle thats a conversation piece with contents that will make a fair range of wine drinkers happy, try Luna di Luna.
While it is a pretty bottle, and you can find extra large bottles of it around the holidays, I found it less than thin. Light with a bit of snap at the end, and the fruits are nearly hidden. So it actually makes a good party wine, when you want to put on a nicer affair than a kegger, something more adult than serving Yago or Mateuse, but your friends aren’t quite up to the $80 per bottle aged for a decade stuff. So I’m not dissing it, but I like a more forward, full bodied wine for the price, or for a couple dollars more.