The Shakedown Red Blend is 75% Mourvedre, 15% Grenache and 10% Viognier sourced from the Central Coast Vineyard Team, a group of 300 local farmers growing grapes with sustainable farming practices. The grapes for the Shakedown Red come from the Paso Robles AVA of the Central Coast. Viognier is a White wine grape and is used in Red wine blends to add a floral element to the nose and to put a shine on the Mourvedre and Grenache. This is a non-vintage wine which indicates that grapes from different vintages are blended together, I am guessing, but the Viognier might be a more recent vintage than the red grapes.
The color is a dusty see-thru raspberry red. The nose slightly medicinal with chocolate covered cherries and smoke. The mouth feel is silky, but with an edge. First comes blueberry and raspberry with Altoids spice, the mid-palate adds licorice and tobacco. This is a wine that is not afraid to have firm tannins and a strong structure. There is a smooth long blueberry finish.
The Shakedown Red blend is an “easy to drink” wine in the best sense of the word, often “easy to drink” means that a wine has all its personality removed and all that is left is a fruit forward flavor. The Shakedown Red is a no compromise wine, with all the components a wine should have, that also has delicious taste. The Shakedown Red would make a great wine for a party, it is not the same old thing and it does go down very easy.
