Wine Review - 2011 Luckett Vineyards Phone Box Red: Local Luscious Red Wine

Luckett Vineyards Phone Box Red 

We were able to pick this wine up at Pete's Frootique in Wolfville last summer when they received permission from the NSLC to sell some of the Luckett Vineyards stock in store.

We have had the wine before but it was interesting to see the value of hanging on it for an extra year.  The wine has a mixture of the following grapes Lucie Kuhlmann, Marechal Foch, Leon Millot, and Triomphe. The label speaks of having some dried grapes in the mix of this blend wine which is a fantastic idea for wines here in Nova Scotia.  We do not to a lot of vinifera grapes (i.e. Cab Sauv, Merlot, and the like) so our cool climate hybrid red grapes tend to suffer from thinness and astringency at times.  Some are really great but when you treat them to a bit of the appassimento treatment (think Amarone) you get a bit more richness and bodied from concentrating the juice and the flavours.  In proper balance and economic value it really could work for our cool climate as a marketable way to give our red wines the boost they sometimes need.

When you pour the wine it show immediately of a deep and dark red colour which truly makes it a nice looking wine.  On the swirl it shows as medium bodied which makes sense with the style of the wine.  Overall a nice looking at wine and darker than we might have otherwise expected.

The nose is strong with vanilla which confirms the fact that this wine spent some time in American oak.  It is really nice to have that familiar and pungent scent of oak on the wine.  Beyond that the fruit speaks of cranberry juice and tart cherries and maybe even a hint of spicy cayenne in there.  Very nice.

The wine has a tangy nature as part of mouthfeel.  It's more than tart but not at all bitter.  The beauty of the wine is that there are some sweet notes in there that really round out the taste.  We'd call it a combination of balsamic vinegar and sugar plums.  Nice especially that it comes from Nova Scotia where we are more known for our Sparkling wines and off-dry crisp acidic whites.

	Tasting Notes:	Score:
Sight (0-5)	Deep and dark wine with a medium body on the swirl	4.0
Smell (0-5)	Great nose of vanilla and cherries with a touch of cayenne	4.25
Taste (0-10)	Tangy on the palate to the point of having balsamic vinegar notes wrapped around sugar plums. Nice.	8.0
	Total:	16.5 / 20 (81.25%)

At $20 this comes in at a typical price point for a Nova Scotia wine and it doesn't disappoint.  If you have never been to the winery itself we highly recommend a visit as it has a spectacular view of the Gaspereau Valley down to the Minas Basin.  We also have the Phone Box white we will be trying shortly so stay tuned for that as well.

Keep on tasting!