I have some buyers remorse on this wine. While Franconia (the Friuli name for the grape) is somewhat common, this grape is supposed to be one of the best red varieties in Austria, where its called Blaufränkisch. I should revisit it when I visit Austria at some point in the future. Its also grown in Germany (Lemberger), Bulgaria (Gamé), Hungary (Kékfrankos) and the Czech Republic (Frankovka). Its a grape with an identity crisis.

Naturally, I was super nervous to open this wine. The other Blason wine was the one that went down the drain, and this one cost $2 less! So, we chose to open it on Labor Day when it was about 90 degrees out, while we were barbecuing steak. Low expectations and still some of the Friulano left in the fridge as a consolation prize.

It had that awful bright yellow synthetic cork again and was quite a bit too warm (it didn’t get one of the coveted spots in my wine fridge and had been sitting on the sideboard since purchase). It was dark purple in color. So far so good. I simply drank it during dinner, as we were at a friend’s, and didn’t “taste” it and take notes until we got home. It was deemed drinkable at dinner, “not that bad”.

Back at home I put it in the fridge for a bit to try and get it back to an appropriate temperature (as I doubt 85 degrees is preferable). It smelled of dark fruit, cherries and blackberries, and a hint of mint.

It was pretty light-bodied (and thus why we were able to drink it in 90 degree weather without suffocating) and very acidic. It was spicy, lots of black pepper, but pretty one-dimensional. The finish was ‘earthy’, in not that great a way, or maybe it was just ‘cheap’. It was much better in its overly warm state alongside our dinner than alone after dinner. Myles did the honors of finishing off most of this one.

The Score: ★ ★