Ari's Tasting- Balatonboglari Merlot

 Garamvari St. Donatus Estate Balatonboglari; the grape variety is Merlot, the country of origin and region is Hungary, the vintage year is a 2015 the price of the bottle was $5.99 at Trader Joes. I was invited over for dinner at a family friend's house. So, I decided to get a bottle of wine that I think would have been a good choice for everyone going. 

 I asked the woman working at the wine counter at Trader Joe's if she could point me in the direction of a sweeter red wine that is popular. I'm really glad that I asked instead of blindly grabbing a bottle of red wine. This did not disappoint me at all. I was able to drink it without trying to hide a bitter and dry flavor that I typically do not like. This was the perfect blend of sweetness to me. It wasn't overly sweet like drinking a Barefoot Reisling, those are a little too sweet to me. I got tastes of jams and berry flavors. If I had to identify a specific taste for me, it was strawberry, raspberry and blackberry. 

In the Wine Folly text, on page 116 they have descriptors of "Raspberry" and "Sugar Plum". I got hints of raspberry throughout drinking this wine and I believe this is why I favor it so much, it's one of my favorite fruits. Before we ate dinner, we had cheese and crackers along with raspberry jam and it was bringing out the sweetness in the wine even more for me. Brie cheese, raspberry jam and crackers will be my new favorite combination with this wine. I will definitely be buying more of it. I'm pleased with it since it was so cheap. 

Once we had dinner, I will admit the taste changed a little bit for me it did become slightly sour but nothing too extreme. We had tenderloin, green beans and scalloped potatoes. I will need to pair it with a different meal the next time I have it and see if and how the flavor changes for me.