Today's Sponsor

 Pour Confidently With The California Wine Club!
The California Wine Club guarantees every wine featured because they do what other wine clubs do not.
www.cawineclub.com


In This Issue

 Winning claret
What's a claret? It's an old name, rather British, for a red Bordeaux blend. Today let's take a look at an American version - a.k.a. Meritage - that was the people's choice in a recent tasting here.
 Pour Confidently With The California Wine Club! The California Wine Club guarantees every wine featured because they do what other wine clubs do not.
 Hahn Estates 2006 Central Coast Meritage Red Table Wine ($17.99) In competition with two other American Bordeaux blends and three from Bordeaux, this one took first place on pleasure points.
Administrivia Change E-mail address, frequency, format or unsubscribe.

 Wine Video Watch
 Learn about our RSS Feed

This article was published in The 30 Second Wine Advisor on Monday, Oct. 20, 2008 and can be found at http://www.wineloverspage.com/wineadvisor2/tswa20081020.php.

Winning claret

What's a claret? It's an old name, rather British, for a red Bordeaux blend. Today let's take a look at an American version - a.k.a. Meritage - that was the people's choice in a recent tasting here.

Hahn Estates 2006 Central Coast Meritage Red Table Wine won a consumer taste-off among six "claret" wines - three Merlot-dominant Right Bank Bordeaux and three California Bordeaux blends - ranging in price from $18 (for this one) to $30-plus.

Even as the lowest-price wine of the group, the Hahn won "easily," said John Johnson, proprietor of The Wine Rack on Louisville's historic Frankfort Avenue, a shop that wins my affection for a small but eclectic collection and, mainly, for Johnson'a excellent knowledge of wine and food. It also bears the distinct advantage of being the only wine shop in the world that I can walk to from my home in five minutes.

Before we head for the tasting report, let's take a moment to refresh our memory on two relevant wine terms:

Claret, as noted above, is an older term, originally British, for red wine, specifically Bordeaux. It likely stems from the French "Clairet" ("Cleh-RAY"), used in early times to distinguish the light, clear Bordeaux reds from their more dark and murky competition. Clairet has been resurrected in modern times, at least as a niche market, as a light, fruity and early-drinking Bordeaux available at modest prices. I haven't seen it outside France. But when you read or hear of "claret," you can assume that the topic is a Bordeaux-type red.

Meritage is a modern English word, coined in a contest in the 1980s, intended as an American synonym for "Bordeaux blend" or even "claret." It's supposed to be prounced as an English word, to rhyme with "heritage," but just about everyone these days assumes it's a French word prounces "Mair-uh-tahzh," and even knowledgeable sommeliers often slip up. The concept has survived, and many wineries do register to use the name; but many more decline to participate, sticking with "Red Table Wine" or even "claret" or simply proprietary names.

As for the Hahn Meritage, it's easy to see why it was a crowd-pleaser. It offers up plenty of appetizing fruit, relatively restrained oak influence, and plenty of acidity and tannins for balance without harshness. Like so many modern California wines, its alcohol level is a bit frightening at 14.5%, but in fairness, the alcohol is well handled and doesn't come across as unpalatable heat. My tasting notes are below.



Hahn Estates 2006 Central Coast Meritage Red Table Wine ($17.99)

Hahn

Very dark garnet color with a deep reddish-violet edge. Good "claret" scents meld dark berries and tart cherries with a hint of Cabernet blackcurrant; oak adds hints of chocolate and vanilla, but they're subtle, not dominant. Mouth-filling cherry-berry fruit fills the palate, with ample acidity - not always a given in a Central Coast wine - soft tannins and just a hit of warmth from hefty but well-handled 14.5% alcohol. (Oct. 18, 2008)

FOOD MATCH: A bold wine that calls for robust flavors and finds them in lamb burgers made from natural Kentucky Dreamcatcher Farm lamb and lightly flavored with Indian spices and garlic..

VALUE: It demonstrates its quality as winner of a casual wine-shop tasting among wines that cost significantly more. Stands well above its competition for less than $20, but shop around, as it is widely discounted.

WHEN TO DRINK: The varietal content suggests ageworthiness, and the wine certainly has =sufficient structure to carry it for a few years in the cellar. Its accessible fruit suggests that it's really intended for early consumption, though. I'd drink it over the next five years or less, and then only assuming good cellar conditions.

WEB LINK:
For a fact sheet on Hahn Estates 2006 Meritage (and a button for ordering the wine online for $16 plus shipping where the law allows), click this long link:
http://www2.ibgcheckout.com/hahn/
catalog/view_product.jsp?product_id=1071&cat_id=1

FIND THIS WINE ONLINE:
Find vendors and compare prices for Hahn Estates Meritage on Wine-Searcher.com:
http://www.wine-searcher.com/
find/Hahn%2bMeritage/-/-/USD/A?referring_site=WLP


Talk About Wine Online

If you have questions, comments or ideas to share about today's article
or wine in general, you're always welcome to drop by our online WineLovers Discussion Group. This link will take you to the forum home page, where you can read discussions in all the forum sections:
http://www.wineloverspage.com/forum/village

Everyone is free to browse. If you'd like to post a comment, question or reply, you must register, but registration is free and easy. Do take care to register using your real name, or as a minimum, your real first name and last initial. Anonymous registrations are quietly discarded.

To contact me by E-mail, write wine@wineloverspage.com. I'll respond personally to the extent that time and volume permit.

PRINT OUT TODAY'S ARTICLE
Here's a simply formatted copy of today's Wine Advisor, designed to be printed out for your scrapbook or file or downloaded to your PDA or other wireless device.
http://www.wineloverspage.com/wineadvisor2/
2008/10/winning_claret-print.html


Last Week's Wine Advisor Index

The Wine Advisor's daily edition is usually distributed on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. However, we're skipping some editions at this point, and the Wine Advisor FoodLetter, customarily distributed on Thursdays, has been on break. I hope to resume it before long.

 Wine and hard times (Oct. 17, 2008)
http://www.wineloverspage.com/wineadvisor2/tswa20081017.php

 Locavino revisited (Oct. 13, 2008)
http://www.wineloverspage.com/wineadvisor2/tswa20081013.php

 Complete 30 Second Wine Advisor archive:
http://www.wineloverspage.com/wineadvisor2/archives.php

 Wine Advisor Foodletter archive:
http://www.wineloverspage.com/wineadvisor2/food/archives.php