At a local market this morning, where I honestly never look at wine (lots of bottles but almost nothing over $20 and they leave it up to distribs to stock it), I somehow spied a familiar label from where I was grabbing fresh apricots, which was the whole purpose of this trip. Fresh apricots are rarely good but these were spectacular. I bought 3 lbs two days ago and have eaten them all; I needed more. But anyway, the label: Pegau.
Of course I zoomed right over. It was the Maclura. I am aware of its existence but have maybe never had it before, but still: it's Pegau. A GSM with 60% grenache, 20% syrah, 10% ea mourvedre and cinsault. And the alcohol is what these days is almost modest, a flat 14 percent. $21.99, or $19.80 if four or more. A cheap little thrill of a risk for someone who hasn't had many thrills of late, and I could use some fresh, inexpensive reds. I took all four.
Went to put them in the inventory just now and my heart sank when I saw the average CT score: 83. That's the average between the two scores of 78 and 88 offered thus far.
So then I looked up the pros, and now I'm smiling again. 92 pts from Jeb Dunnock, from who for my tastes a low 90's score is better than a high 90's score, and 90-92 from former WLDGer and Advocate reviewer Joe Cz. Combining their descriptions, it's a "medium-bodied, supple, nicely textured, charming, focused red that's loaded with character and a long, dusty finish."
I think I'm going to be very happy with this purchase.