Red Wine Reviews & Tasting Notes

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.