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I took part in a blind Merlot tasting the other night and thought I would share what I learned. This was a pretty casual tasting consisting of winemakers, spouses, a wine writer, and a national salesperson for a local winery. Let me stress casual..we did 4 rounds of two wines...all selected randomly...we tasted, talked, took notes, and made guesses and then unveiled.
I'm sorry that I have a poor memory but it was something like this: 3 French wines, 3 Washington wines, 1 Napa wine, and 1 Arizona wine (yes that says Arizona).
Vintages were all over the place. I'm sorry I can't remember the names of most of the wines, especially the French, but they weren't 1st or 2nd growths. Not cheap wines by any stretch though.
The only real surprise of the night was the Arizona wine..I found it vegetal but it had some tannin characteristics that reminded me of France...
The rest all played out where I would of thought going in. The french wines were more tannic and had degrees of Brett ranging from very little to annoyingly like smelling a band aid. One of them was wonderfully young tasting for it's age.
The dog of the night was Schafer Merlot, Napa Valley. 60 some bones and boring. Too much oak, no complexity, and no acid ( I'll proudly say that I nailed it as napa while still cloaked in a paper bag)
The surprise of the night was a 1997 Tamarack CV Merlot. (also nailed it as WA with tell tale cherry cola notes...but would of never guessed it was a 97) Shockingly vivid and alive considering the age...actually to hell with that...even not considering it's age it was beautiful and tasted bright and new. I honestly don't know much about how it was made or vineyard sourcing but I will find out.
I don't want to sound like a shrill for WA wine (for those that don't know I have a winery and make wine in WA), but that's what I tasted. Don't give up on Merlot! Damn movie.
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