- Last updated on February 1, 2023
This is our Orin Swift 8 Years In The Desert review.
Are you after a great bottle of wine, fruity, round, smooth, and elegant?
And what if I tell you that it’s rated 90+ points, it pairs well with a vast variety of dishes and is reasonably priced?
Well, this is the wine you have been looking for! We liked it a lot!
Find below our 8 Years In The Desert review along with our food pairings recommendations, serving tips, curiosity, and where you can buy it.
Let’s begin!
Our Orin Swift 8 Years In The Desert Review
- Brand: Orin Swift
- Grape Varietal: Zinfandel, Syrah, Petit Syrah, Barbera
- Region: United States, California
- Tasting Notes: Red & Black fruit notes
- Glass & Serving: Bordeaux / 59-64 °F (15-18 °C) / Decant 30 mins
- Store: Up to 5-7 Years
- Price Range: $40-$50
- Bottle Size: 750 ml
8 Years In The Desert review: What's its color?
8 Years In The Desert wine has a deep garnet color with slow-falling legs.
If you want to know more about how to taste wine and the lingo that goes with it, check out this article: How To Taste Wine Like a Pro in 4 Steps.
What does 8 Years In The Desert taste like?
8 Years In The Desert is a blend of Syrah, Zinfandel, Barbera, and Petit Syrah wine grapes.
On the nose, it’s sweet with blueberry and raspberry juice aromas, and a hint of earthiness and spice.
On the palate, it’s round with soft tannins and good acidity. Raspberry, blackberry, and ripe plum finishing with mocha and chocolate.
Is 8 Years In The Desert sweet?
No, it’s not sweet. 8 Years In The Desert is a dry wine.
Dry wine contains less than 15 g/L.
Learn more about wine sweetness level here.
8 Years In The Desert review: Which food pairs well with it?
8 Years In The Desert is a rich and complex blend with intense flavors, as such, we recommend pairing it with equally strong flavor dishes.
Classic appetizers are pizza Rustica, spice curry dishes, and caramelized onions to name some.
Meat wise you have a wide selection here from quail, turkey, pork, ham, bacon, veal, and BBQ for example.
If you are a cheese lover our recommendations for you are semi-hard, hard, and blue cheeses like Cheddar, Grana Padano, and Gorgonzola to name some.
8 Years In The Desert review: What's its alcohol content?
8 Years In The Desert wine’s alcohol content is 15.8%.
In case you wonder about alcohol content or more precisely Alcohol By Volume, i.e. ABV, measure the alcoholic strength of a drink.
There is a direct relationship between the sugar left in the wine after the alcoholic fermentation has taken place, i.e. Residual Sugar or RS, and ABV.
During alcoholic fermentation, the yeast transforms the sugar in the grape juice into alcohol.
Grapes with high residual sugar will therefore produce dry wine with a high ABV.
How many calories are in a glass of 8 Years In The Desert wine?
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture [1] a 5-ounce glass will contain about 120 to 130 calories.
Alcohol contains 7 calories per gram. So a wine with high ABV will have a higher calories per glass than a wine with low ABV.
Furthermore, sugar contributes to the calorie count.
A dry wine will usually have 4 calories per grams vs a sweet wine that will have around 20 calories per grams of carbs, which include sugar.
What is Orin Swift?
Here is an extract from the Orin Swift website itself:
“The history of Orin Swift Cellars dates back to 1995 when on a lark, David Swift Phinney took a friend up on an offer and went to Florence, Italy to spend a semester “studying”.
During that time, he was introduced to wine, how it was made, and got hooked. A few more years of university led to graduation and eventually a job at Robert Mondavi Winery in 1997 as a temporary harvest worker.
Deciding that if he was going to work this hard, it would eventually have to be for himself, he founded Orin Swift Cellars in 1998;
Orin is his father’s middle name and Swift is his mother’s maiden name.
With two tons of zinfandel and not much else, he spent the next decade making wine for others as well as himself and grew the brand to what it is today.“
Conclusion
This is a fabulous red blend. It’s soft, round, elegant, and offers many layers of complexity for ~$40, which for the quality, is a very reasonable price.
Raspberry, blackberry, and ripe plum finishing with mocha and chocolate will complement many dishes from veggie, pasta, a vast variety of red meats, and our beloved cheeses.
Try it with caramelized onions, pizza Rustica, BBQ, or Gorgonzola cheese and it’ll be a delight. At least it was for me!
If you have never tried it, I’m not entirely sure what are you still waiting for?
Once you had it, we’d love to know your opinion, so reach out and let’s know what you think! Enjoy!
