A busy weekend comes to an end and the start of, yet another, work week is on the horizon.  Seems like time just keeps flying by.  With summer on the doorstep, we found tonight’s wine as a perfect addition to the summer roster.  Plush Wine Company information tells us that the first place to begin is in the vineyard. Every quality of the vineyard is important, from the optimum sun exposure and annual rainfall to the low-fertility and well-drained soils. Each quality provides its own uniqueness to the grapes and is vital in producing a great product. These qualities can be truly appreciated through their hand-crafted wines.  Based in the Wilamette Valley of Oregon, Plush Wine Company seeks to educate people about wine and the regions they are made. Interestingly, Plush Wine Company is actually divided into multiple wine making areas by California, Oregon and Washington.  Their mission is crafting fine wines with excellent fruit.

Clearly, this wine–even at a value price under $9 a bottle–is meant to be a ‘company salesperson’ from California… it’s a wine that either by name or by taste you can’t get it out of your head.  For us, the knowledge of how they make the wine takes center stage. . .because in the making of the wine comes part of the value in tasting the wine.  Plush Wine Company uses French oak barrels for cellaring its wines accompanied by a few stainless steel barrels to preserve the brightness of the fruit. How much new French oak the wine will be exposed to will vary depending on the how the wine is destined to be bottled.  Ultimately, the winemaking team regularly tastes the wines in barrel to monitor the development. (Something we love doing is barrel-tasting!)

Tonight we enjoyed this wine, but truthfully it’s not as high on our list as the wine maker may think it should be.  Oh, it’s definitely fruity, jammy and full of juice!  The nose is exciting–bringing promises of an amazing, fruitful experience.  Even the first taste is quick to deliver on that jammy context—almost sweet in it’s initial delivery.  However, the finish causes the wine to drop like a rock. . .there is no finish.  It just disappears off the radar like a thunderstorm poised to bring rain but when it hits a dry air mass. . .it just disappears!  You can’t blame the wine making–clearly, they’ve done their homework.  You can’t blame the pricing—it’s value-priced for a reason.  Ultimately, the fruit–as it’s biggest advantage–becomes it’s biggest disadvantage.  Too much ripeness and not enough high quality fruit to make the wine stand out.  We enjoyed it, but probably aren’t going to step up to the plate and purchase with any regularity.

We know that there are lots of quality wines to choose from, and while Plush was enjoyable, we’d suggest looking elsewhere.  For the same money, last week’s review of Dead Bolt would be a better starting place.  But, one has to try these wines to formulate an opinion…we’d be interested in yours.  Continue enjoying your favorite wine responsibly and remember to recycle whenever possible.