The Dearly Beloved I Thee Red 2015 is Red blend found at Trader Joe’s ($7.99) made from grapes grown in the Central Coast AVA of California. This is a TJ’s wine that has been around for a while, we first reviewed the 2009 vintage. Dearly Beloved is one of the Truett-Hurst labels, they specialize in selling wines thru Trader Joe’s, Target, Kroger, Albertson’s, and Total stores. Truett-Hurst has not updated the Dearly Beloved website since the 2012 vintage but in 2012 the blend of grapes in the I Thee Red was Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah, Cabernet Franc, and Petit Sirah. The first thing you notice about the I Thee Red bottle is the intricate red stenciled Mexican Day of the Dead label, that gives this wine a few extra points even before you pop the cork. The alcohol content is 14.5%.
The color is a very serious purple. The nose is blackberry, raspberry, savory bacon fat, blueberry, spice, molasses, and vanilla bean. This is a medium-bodied wine with a soft mouthfeel upfront and a fair amount of structure on the mid-palate. It tastes of sour cherry, exotic spice, blackberry, plum, and black pepper. The mid-palate shows Altoids spice, cranberry, blueberry, and Nestle’s Quick powder. The tannins make their presence known, nothing overbearing, but they are there.The acidity is muted, but it will work as a food wine, BBQ, burgers, pizza and the like. The finish is full and as far as I can tell may never end.
The Dearly Beloved I Thee Red 2015 is a very solid 8 buck Red blend. It has a lot of flavor, a good selection of ripe fruits and spices. Decent balance, nice length, this is an old school California “kitchen sink” blend. Have a glass or 2 with some Firecracker shrimp or Nashville Hot Chicken.
