I picked up a bottle of Menage a Trois Red last night to go with dinner (smoked chicken). The wine derives its name form the fact that it is a mix of three grapes – Zinfandel, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon.
From the first sip – pow! Fruit. Tons of fruit. Big jammy mouth filling fruit. Too much fruit. The tannins are relatively soft, there is very little acidity, the alcohol (13.5%) is not noticeable. There is not really anything in this wine to offset the fruit bomb. All-in-all, because of that, it was a bit off-balance for me.
At $12.99 for the bottle I would have expected a little more complexity and balance. If the price had rung in at $8.99 or $9.99 I would consider this to be an ok table wine. At $12.99 it is simply a disappointing bottle of wine that I will not be purchasing again.
Decant this wine! I only drank half of it last night and then used Vacuvin to seal it – but it still got some air. The time to breath tones down the fruit and brings things more into balance.