It is still a conundrum.

Another blind wine tasting in tonight's wine marketing class.  My classmates and I were told to simply rate the mystery wines, 1 through 6, in our order of preference.  Now, none of the wines were anything I'd personally want to swallow, but two stood out as particularly undesirable to me.  The first was a Meiomi, 2013 Pinot noir - with a really funky nose, I didn't even want to taste it, but I did.  As an aside, this brand just sold to Constellation Brands for $315 million making Joe Wagner, at 33 years old, a very rich young man.  The second wine was a Conundrum, 2012 California Red Wine - it had a nonspecific red-fruit nose and, upon tasting, it was cloyingly sweet.  I had actually commented to the person sitting next to me, who happens to be a co-worker at TWWIAGE, that the wine was disturbingly reminiscent of Conundrum.  I nailed it!  I am guessing that I just don't like Wagner Family wines.
After the unveiling, the entire class acted as a mini-focus group and we discussed the merits and demerits of the labels.  I don't know if I need to visit an optician, or if I need to take a design class, but my idea of what constitutes 'shelf appeal' in a wine label was quite different from the majority of the class.  We all did, however, agree that the label on the Napa Valley College wine left something to be desired.  Someone commented that the pale blue, circular label looked like it had been printed at home for a baby shower.  My favourite label was the Parducci, 2012 True Grit Reserve Red (Mendocino AVA).  Clean and unfussy, with a sort of Wild West-meets-Bordelais-charm, the True Grit label was to the point; proprietary name, wine type, origin, vintage and producer. Besides, I'm a sucker for anything with cowboys boots on it.

It is a conundrum.

I consider myself a fairly intelligent person, so it is with some consternation that I find myself struggling to get my grey matter around the fact that anyone in the Napa Valley would want to make a wine like this particular wine from the Wagner Family (Caymus).  The Conundrum, 2012 California Red Wine, is to me simply undrinkable: it has so much residual sugar that I think I now have diabetes from attempting to drink it. The variety of grapes that go into Conundrum Red (and the vineyards, and the AVAs in which the grapes were grown) are a mystery.
I know Caymus sell a butt load (technical term) of this wine, but it is a puzzle to me as to how they do it.  Obviously, there are a lot more folks around America that like to imbibe in sweet red wine than I imagined. Thankfully, I was given this wine by the owner of TWWIAGE (I think she likes me), otherwise I would be really distressed at the thought that I'd spent my hard earned money on it.  Of the Conundrum Red, Charlie Wagner II says, it "beckons a second sip."  I could barely get the first, and only, one down.