Paso Robles is in Southern California near Bakerfield. What you see here is a picture of a label stolen from elsewhere on the web, because I soaked the bottle for too long and let the label disintegrate. That was unfortunate because the label itself is actually kind of interesting. The label is shaped like a upside-down T, instead of the usual plain rectangle.

We had this wine on our trip to Provincetown. The wine had the typical full, dark Cabernet taste, but also had a very distinct Merlot-like tartness, so this would not be my first choice to drink on its own or with a meal. However, we were also having cheese at the time; the tartness went very well with the cheese.

This wine was OK.

I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti. — Hannibal Lecter

I had tried Chianti before and didn’t like it, but was willing to try it again. Unfortunately, I was disappointed again. The wine was rather thin and tart. But after briefly educating myself a very little bit more about Chianti, I suspect that this is simply a matter of taste. Chianti appears to be commonly blended with Merlot, something I’ve discovered that I do not have a taste for.

So for me, this wine was Not Good.

Glen Carlou is a South African vineyard; the Syrah grape is more commonly known in the USA as Shiraz. Removing the label from a bottle of wine is not difficult and is much like removing a label from any other kind of glass bottle, but this particular label took more time than I expected. All you have to do is run the bottle and label under warm water until the adhesive degrades enough for the label to be peeled off. If you are too impatient, you can end up leaving the back of the label still attached to the bottle, leaving the removed label much more fragile. This particular label had a lot of adhesive. Next, you wait for the label to dry. If you are too impatient, you end up with a crinkled label that doesn’t scan very well (like the one pictured here).

This wine was OK.