The Internet is an amazing thing.

I bought this IGT red wine the other day on a whim: it was $8; it was from Sardinia, which I thought was interesting; and the label mentioned that "Raim" is the word for grape in Catalan. The other day, I decided to visit the vineyard's website at www.sellaemosca.com: I discovered that they train the vines in a "pergola" fashion, in order to keep the grapes in the shade; that they use traditional French oak barriques in which to age the wine prior to bottling, and that this wine is a proprietary blend of Merlot and Carignane grapes.

Then I opened the bottle and discovered that the wine was crap.

It is old and it feels like it. Maybe a year or two ago this wine had something to offer, but now it has faded beyond redemption. What was left of its original cherry-like fruitiness failed to mask the acidity--excessive even by Italian standards. There were some tannins left over in this dark red, moody-looking wine, but they too seemed very harsh in the absence of any balancing fruit. The aroma recalls the oak barrelling, and maybe the oak has left some vanilla hints behind, but you'd almost forget this was a grape product. I'm going to chalk this up to age, and maybe not hold it directly against the vineyard.

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