Savvy wine buy: Gallo of Sonoma ‘98 Merlot

Max Jacobson

Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2000 | 8:55 a.m.

E & J Gallo is one of the world's largest wineries, and its popularly priced wines are often sneered at by serious wine drinkers. But one of the Gallo family's smaller wineries, Gallo of Sonoma, produces several affordable wines of excellent quality. One is this nicely concentrated, surprisingly soft Merlot, which is redolent of ripe berries and vanilla. Vanilla flavors often result when a red wine is barrel-aged in new oak as this one has been. For a wine so new, it is drinking well right now. If stored properly, though, the wine should improve steadily for years.

Available at Smith's, $10.99, or with Fresh Values Card, $8.99.

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