...simple
Beautiful bottle with a carved, colorful vaguely cubist artiness.
With John Chandler and Kevin at WineStyles
The nose is huge on this wine, and somewhat hot (14.5% abv) to my over-sensitive schnozzle. Others liked the nose more than I did. The palate, we all agreed, was a little more restrained, with plenty of juicy black plum fruit, the alcohol again sticking out a bit, but on the positive side a very, very smooth and rich mouth feel. That is probably the high point of the wine for me...the smooth and rich mouth feel. Probably one of the better Mega-California style Merlots I have drunk...I am not a big fan of California Merlot overall. I prefer the 1998 Robert Sinskey Merlot-based blend and the Freemark Abbey Rutherford Merlot. These latter wines are less "sweet" and the Sinskey, at least, offers some herbal notes and other complex flavors that I kinda want now. This wine is a little simple, frankly. I like fruit forward wines, but I guess I want a little more than just a mouthfull of plum juice.
Given how much fruit is left after almost 7 years, did I drink this too soon? Would this wine be amazing in, say, 2012? Not a lot of tannins, but there is pretty decent acidity. Still, the alcohol sticks out and I question really long term ageability????
84 points.