Varietal: Â Syrah; Merlot; Petite Sirah; Zinfandel
Region:Â California – USA
Cost: Â $15 (SRP)
Winemaker’s Notes: Â Our new California Red Wine is a blend of Syrah, Merlot, Petite Sirah, and Zinfandel. This is a wine that is food friendly and fruit forward. It’s chock full of flavors of black cherry and raspberry, vanilla and toast, and has a nice long finish that invites another glass. Our Homefront Red is not only the perfect wine for your own homefront, it’s also the perfect wine to share with friends – and hey, it’s not just a good wine, it’s for a good cause!
My Review: Â Before going too far into my review of the 2011 Homefront Red from Murphy-Goode, I wanted to take a minute and talk about Operation Homefront. Operation Homefront is a nationl non-profit that provides emergency and financial assistance to the families of service members and wounded warriors. Murphy-Goode is donating 50 cents of every bottle of the 2011 Homefront Red to this cause. As the son and son-in-law of military members (both my father and father-in-law served in the Army), I’m happy to see Murphy-Goode helping out a great program. Ok…onto the wine.
In the glass the wine was a dark purple color and on the nose I picked up notes of black cherry and vanilla. In the mouth the wine was fruit forward without being a fruit bomb. I make this distinction because I think when people think of “fruit forward” wines they think of cheap, fruity wines that beat you over the head with their fruit so that you don’t notice anything else. That’s not the case here. The wine has plenty of fruit, but there’s a subtle complexity to it and it doesn’t stop you from noticing other non-fruit flavors as well, most notably the vanilla.
Paired with some pizza for dinner the wine was a good pairing, being easy to sip on thanks to a smooth finish. I’m not going to say that this is some revolutionary wine, but it also isn’t a waste of your money – I figured this was a $15-$20 bottle of wine when sipping  it, which was before I had looked up how much the wine cost.
Whether you’re looking for an easy sipping wine that will give you some bang for your buck or you just want to buy a bottle to help support Operation Homefront, go out and buy a bottle – it’s only $15 and you’ll be helping out a good cause and getting an enjoyable bottle of wine. If you can’t find the 2011 Homefront Red near you and still want to support the cause, you can visit Operation Homefront directly and make a donation here:Â http://www.operationhomefront.net/
