This tastes much better than it smells, what with overwhelming aromas of leather and barnyard leading to a fairly complex array of raspberry, strawberry, plum, oak, vanilla, and black pepper notes on the palate. This is the sort of widely-available (and hardly varietally or terroir distinctive) wine that is suitable if you just want a bottle of red for dinner and don't want to have to think too much about it, and in that regard it's sufficiently versatile and appealing. There's just so much else that is so much better, so much more interesting, even in this quite reasonable price range.