Tasting Notes

Dominating aromatics abound without effort—notes of blackberry pie, black plum, sage and lilac come from the glass. A flooding sensation on entry drives dark fruits onto the mid-palate with touches of savory, fennel and licorice as complements. Long on the finish, the espresso bean and continued concentration of blackberry throughout fades slowly with gentle and soft tannins.

YOU HAD ME AT HELL NO!

Like many things at Orin Swift, what started as a fascination quickly turned into an obsession. Samantha Smith, Dave Phinney’s longtime executive assistant (read: chauffeur, gopher, right-hand ma’am, therapist, etc.), managed amidst her daytime job to multitask away at a book, Advice From John—an anthology of the brilliant, idiotic, and sometimes deep thoughts found at the bottom of a cocktail and then subsequently scribbled and scrawled onto the walls of dive bar bathrooms.

“You Had Me At Hell No,” captured at a dive in Texas, caught Dave’s eye while ruminating ideas on how to bring Merlot back into the mainstream fold—long pilloried for its second of fame in that movie two decades ago. All good things circle back around, so let’s revitalize this delicious, luscious, and fun varietal.

The label art features a message left on the wall of a bathroom in a Texas bar that just so happens to perfectly capture the spirit at the heart of Orin Swift. The photo was taken by Sam Smith, artist and longtime member of the Orin Swift team, as part of a nationwide project in search of advice from johns that resulted in a book by the same name.