The 2009 Apothic Red is a good red wine to serve at parties because it's flavors will not only work well with a variety of foods, but the flavors are likely to be acceptable to preferences to a variety of wine drinkers. It's hard to find a wine that enough different people can enjoy but the 2009 Apothic Red is probably a good option to try. However, it may be better to avoid sweeter dishes when drinking the Apothic Red.

The flavors of the 2009 Cline Cashmere are primarily cherry, red berries, and tart red fruits. This is a full-bodied dry red wine blend with soft tannins, marked acidity, and an extended length. It would probably work with most gilled red meats and certain types of fish, like salmon. On the whole, though, we were disappointed with the 2009 Cline Cashmere. We wanted and expected to enjoy it, but it just didn't do anything for us.

The 2008 Dynamite Cabernet Sauvignon is a fairly dry, medium-to-full bodied red wine that is high in tannins. The acidity is decent enough but the dryness and strong tannins cause it to really need to be tempered by food - it's not really a wine for sipping on its own. If it weren't for the harshness of the tannins, this Dynamite Cabernet Sauvignon would probably be a much better wine that would pair well with a wider variety of foods.

The flavors of the 2005 Spier Private Collection Pinotage are much like the aromas: creamy vanilla and red fruit. It's a dry, full-bodied wine with strong tannins and a lingering aftertaste. The aromas of this 2005 Pinotage are moderate in intensity and consist of vanilla, cream, plum, and other red fruits.

The flavors of the 2007 Nederburg Pinotage consist mainly of aromatic red fruit. It's a dry, full bodied red wine with strong tannins and marked acidity. The aromas of this Pinotage are moderate and consist mainly of smoke, vanilla, and red fruit. It's not a sweet smokey smell, more a smoke you get when cooking meat.

This 2007 Pinotage from The Winery of Good Hope is a deep, dark red - almost purple in color and is reminiscent of blood at times. This full-bodied Pinotage is smooth with a strong alcohol taste, red berry flavors, and a spicy finish. Overall it's a decent Pinotage, which is commendable because Pinotage is a very difficult wine to get right.

The Pepperwood Grove Pinot Noir 2008 is very dark and rich in color, almost garnet red it's so strong. This dry, full-bodied Pinot Noir has nice fruit flavors combined with some smoke. The tannins are fairly strong and hard, which makes this an excellent wine to have with red, fatty meats.

The moderate aromas of the Estancia Paso Robles are strong with red fruit, berries, and a little spice. This Zinfandel is dry with strong tannins and moderate flavors of dark fruit, berries, a hint of cinnamon, and perhaps a little smoke.

The texture of the Bonterra Syrah is much thinner than you would expect from how thick it looks, but it's also velvety smooth on the tongue which is quite nice. The flavors of this medium- to full-bodied wine are dominated by fruit but there is also some warm spice at the end.

The Volant Mill wine is medium-sweet and rather tart. It tastes strongly of blackberries, as you would expect. It's probably not the sort of wine that you would want to just sit and drink alone. You could do this, if you want, but blackberry wine is better when paired with desserts - primarily chocolate.