#2 - McMannis Vineyards Merlot

I have gotten this wine for $12.00 at a speciality store and a much more reasonable $7.99 at Liquors 44, the local liquor store chain.

This wine actually tastes like leather and tobacco. It tastes like being in the back of a dark bar with menacing men with bellies and pricy gear. The sharp tobacco hits you as you take the first sip, and then mellows out before smoothing into a leathery finish. If you're not of the leather daddy admiring persuasion, think of genuine leather new car smell (no phalates for you, thank you!) mixing in with an end of the work day cigarette. I don't smoke and I can appreciate this wine, because the buzz is much more pleasant.

This cheap wine is not for the wine beginner, but might appeal nicely to a single malt scotch drinker.