Black cherry, spicy berry and oak fill the palate, but not so much that bits of herb, anise and coffee can't be notes in the song. I tell ya, this is a slick bottle of wine -- as polished as the production work on "Oops!…I Did it Again." Plenty of low end, with solid mid-range and crisp high tones.

The finish is a great blend of berries, cherries and just a touch of oak. It may not stick with you quite as long as the hook from "...Baby One More Time," but how many wines can really do that?

I want to acknowledge that I'm hardly the first reviewer to praise this wine. It's been out for a little while, and in some ways this is like giving four stars to an album that has already gone platinum. "So, why now?" you ask. Two reasons: 1) A lot of stores seem to have over-bought this wine. It got some great reviews, and merchants stocked up. Now that their still stuck with several cases of it, I'm starting to see it go on sale (I found it recently for $9 in two different stores); and 2) Because it was time for a dead-lock recommendation. You can find this wine damn-near everywhere, and damn-near everyone will like it.

Just make sure to share it with everyone within the next couple years (at most). This isn't a wine that will necessarily age gracefully for the next decade… just like N*Sync and most other boy-bands.

Cheers,
TSW

I may anger a powerful French wine mogul for saying it, but this Louis Bernard offering is like the Britney Spears of the wine world. Like pop music it's accessible, mass-produced, straight-forward and probably won't be in very good taste 10 years from now.

While that may not be the most glowing intro, it's a head-bobbin' bottle o' fun tonight, and has another pop-esque quality going for it: mass appeal. Most people (and most food, for that matter) will like this one, and for good reason. It's an excellent wine, wonderfully balanced and will cost you a lot less than the new Shakira album.

The color is a deep ruby that's roughly the color of Ms. Spears navel jewel (not that I've noticed). The nose is full of cherries and berries that are sweet smelling without turning jammy (the music may be canned, but the wine isn't). There's just a hint of leather and smoke in there, too, and it plays off the fruit flavors well. It's like a Top-40 hit that throws in a distorted, noisy guitar riff (though that doesn't always work, think of a classic, like Michael Jackson's Beat It. You may not like the song, but Eddie Van Halen's guitar work gave it something).