My daughter loves cats.  She came with me into the store while I was looking for new bottles of wine to try.  She saw the label with the leopards and thought the idea of herding cats was hilarious.  She let me know I was not getting out of the store without that bottle. 

Herding Cats is a merlot/pinotage (80/20) blend from South Africa, and was strictly a “label purchase” only because I’ve never heard of the winery or brand.  There were no references to the winery, so if you know who the winery is let me know.  The wine is imported by Underdog Wine Merchants.   

Herding Cats Merlot/Pinotage blend is a good wine for the price

Looks

The first thing you’ll notice about Herding Cats is that it is a screw top.  I have no romantic associations with corks , and I appreciate the practical closure.  The wine has a really good dark color--opaque burgundy.  The wine is clear (it isn’t opaque from cloudiness), it just has a very deep color.

I like screwtop! I wish more wines used them.

Aroma

Herding Cats has a very strong aroma.  It's not a bad scent that you might expect from a cat, the aroma is really pleasant.  I could smell the wine a good foot from my nose.  The scent really hits you.  You could smell a bit of the alcohol, but you really could pick up strong scents of blackberries. 

Taste

The flavor seemed a bit tart for either merlot or pinotage.  I could feel a slight burn from the alcohol as it went down.  The wine does have a distinct flavor that I found hard to place.  The wine is a bit different.  I was expecting a bit more fruitiness from the wine description, but I found it to be quite dry. 

Results

I don’t think I’d drink this wine alone, but would be good with food.  This wine should be very good with a meat dish.  I think meat flavors would really smooth out the slight harshness of the wine.  For the price, this wine is pretty solid.  This wine gets 7 scattered felines out of 10.

Winery: Unknown (Imported by Underdog Wine Merchants)
Country of Origin: South Africa, Western Cape
Grape: 80% Merlot 20% Pinotage
ABV: Unknown
Price: $9

Comments

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Peter May     | 196.25.255.xxx | 2008-02-06 04:46:18 It is not the name of a South Africa winery, neither can I see the brand listed in the 'bible' of SA wines, the Platter guide. It looks like a 'shippers brand'. You buy some wine, or get a SA winery to make a consignment to your specifications and put your own label on it. You either bottle it atthe winery or you ship it in bulk and bottle and label it locally. Because it has a Wine & Spirit seal on the neck, it was bottled in SA and you can identify the responsible company from the numbers on the seal, if you're interested. I can't read the short number on your photo but you can do it yourself if you want -- use the link "A-Code Decoder" on my blog at www.pinotage.org emailme if you want more info Reply | Quote 0   0

DJBrew     | Super Administrator | 2008-02-06 09:23:05 I'll have to look at a higher resolution image of the stamp tonight. If I can't read it on that image, I'll go back to the store and see. It didn't look like they were going to sell out soon. Thanks for the great information! Reply | Quote 0   0

Wendy   | 216.253.205.xxx | 2008-02-06 13:22:45 Kat thought the label was hilarious as well. Almost bought the bottle, maybe I'll wait until we have more meat eaters in the house. Reply | Quote 0   0

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