Alexander Valley Merlot 2006

Alexander Valley Merlot 2006 (Alexander & Fitch Winery) is a wine that I would like to like. The label sounded so promising, but I should have been more wary that it only told the story of how the winery was founded and said nothing about the actual wine in the bottle. This is certainly not the worst wine I've ever had, but if I opened a bottle of white that was this poor quality, I'd put a bunch of ice in the glass to dull the taste. This wine is just too astringent - nice berry notes and bold flavors, but I expected the acidity to dissipate as I let it breathe and that just didn't happen. Disappointing. I give it "2 glasses" and I didn't even ask my husband to taste it, because that would just launch a gripe session focusing on this being the reason that a lot of people can't stand to drink red wine...