Purchased at BevMo in Los Angeles

Sale Price - $12.99

Regular Price - $19.99

Alcohol - 13.5%

I saw some really nice wines at BevMo that got my attention, so I decided we would spend a couple weeks checking out 6 of their wines.  I feel like we haven't had much success finding some good wine, give or take a couple.  So, I tried to pick some out that had some type of acclaim.  Several of these wines have been rated 90 to 92 points by Wilfred Wong.  We'll see about that though because I've often found Wong to be wrong on many an occasion.  This Petite Sirah, Powder Keg, was given a 92 by him.

Pop and Pour

On the Nose - Purple candy, smoked meats, oak

I taste wood.  Drinking this is like drinking wood, like gnawing on a wine barrel.  Very sugary.  I think it might even be too sweet.  I can't really taste very much fruit in this wine; rather, I taste the grapey, purple candy flavor with heaps of oak.  This wine is smooth and all, but it just isn't real.

After an Hour

On the Nose - Blackberry, oak, coffee, chocolate, vanilla

This wine is very decadent.  You know, it's kind of like eating frosting in a way, just too rich.  I'm glad a little fruit showed its face a little, but generally Petite Sirah has an explosion of fruits such as raspberry, boysenberry and blueberry.  This wine doesn't have any of that.  Mostly just oak and all the flavors that the oak imparts into the wine.

Summary - 85 points

As you can see, different people rate wines quite differently.  I'm curious whether Wilfred Wong rates wines according to what he likes or according to what he thinks the masses might like.  I rate wines according to what I like, but I usually make a point here in the summary, if it's applicable, if I think different people might like the wine more or less.  This wine failed to a certain extent because it just had too much make-up on; it was too fake.

Frosting...just like this wine.