Posts Tagged ‘Merlot’
Varietal: 59% Cabernet Sauvignon; 19% Cabernet Franc; 11% Malbec; 6% Merlot; 5% Petit Verdot
Region: Napa, California – USA
Cost: $40 (SRP)
Winemaker’s Notes: Rich garnet color goes perfectly with the holiday season and it’s aromas of toasted hazelnut and winter spices make this wine the perfect gift for anyone on your list.
My Review: Another of the bottles that I received just before the end of the year, and on an unseasonable warm day on Sunday (pushing 70 in Virginia? Really?) my wife and I decided to throw a couple of steaks on the grill and a bottle of red wine sounded like the perfect pairing.
While there are some violet streaks going through the wine, it was a nice deep red in the glass and I picked up aromas of spice and dark berry. In the mouth there was a ton of fruit, but it was by no means a “fruit bomb”. By that I mean there was plenty of body and depth to the wine that allowed the wine to present nuanced fruit flavors and have a bit of complexity and a medium-smooth finish.
Varietal: 88% Cabernet Sauvignon; 5% Syrah; 3% Merlot; 2% Petit Verdot; 1% Malbec; 1% Cabernet Franc
Region: California – USA
Cost: $11 (SRP)
Winemaker’s Notes: The wine has a smooth texture and sweet, red fruit character that distinguishes California’s finest Cabernet Sauvignons, along with smoky oak, vanilla, and roasted nut accents to invigorate the palate and provide a lengthy finish. Enjoy with standing rib roasts, grilled steak, roast duck, spareribs, lasagna, or flavorful hard cheeses.
My Review: An evening where my wife was out and I was home alone with the dog to fend for myself on dinner usually only means one thing – steak, a baked potato, and a bottle of red wine to be enjoyed. There are worse ways to spend an evening. I’d been sitting on this sample until I could get around to cooking up a steak, and as tends to be the case, I’m glad I did.
Varietal: 90% Pinot Noir; 6% Petite Sirah; 3% Syrah; 1% Merlot
Region: California – USA
Cost: $11 (SRP)
Winemaker’s Notes: Reflecting the character of a cool vintage, which fostered the development of classic varietal aromas and flavors in our Pinot Noir grapes, this vivacious red wine’s hallmark is fresh, vibrant fruit. On the nose, lovely rose petal, violet, and red cherry aromas mingle with complementary scents of smoky vanilla and nutmeg. Very soft and round with good length and richness on the palate, the wine displays supple, silky berry and cherry jam flavors. Enjoy this delectable Pinot Noir with grilled salmon, herb-roasted chicken, baked ham, or lighter pork dishes.
My Review: So remember yesterday when I talked about the bottle of 2007 Biltmore Blanc de Blancs exploding all over my kitchen? Well, since my wife and I were making salmon to go with that, and since exploding wine meant I was really going to need a drink, we decided to open up this bottle of 2010 Robert Mondavi Pinot Noir that I had received as a sample.
Varietal: Zinfandel, Merlot, Syrah
Region: California – USA
Cost: $14 (SRP)
Winemaker’s Notes: The 2009 Apothic Red reveals intense fruit aromas and flavors of rhubarb and black cherry that are complemented by hints of mocha and vanilla. The plush, velvety mouthfeel and smooth finish round out this intriguing, full-bodied red blend.
My Review: Around this time of year I start getting samples offered with Thanksgiving and Christmas not too far away. I have to say that this is the first year of writing this website that I was offered a sample for Halloween. I’d seen the various bottles of wine on shelves that were obviously trying to appeal either to the Halloween drinking crowd or goth kids too stupid to buy something that didn’t have a vampire or other creature of the night, but I’d never picked one up myself, so when I was offered a sample of the 2009 Apothic Red with Halloween coming up, I was interested since I’ve never really done a Halloween feature on here.
Varietal: 36% Cabernet Sauvignon; 33% Merlot; 14% Syrah; 11% Cabernet Franc; 6% Malbec
Region: Washington – USA
Cost: $25
Winemaker’s Notes: Flagship wine of the estate, the HFE Red Mountain consistently displays dense color, firm tannins, and well-defined acidity. Always a majority blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, this wine is suitable for drinking upon release, but will reward those with the patience to age it. This wine represents all vineyard blocks farmed within the Hedges Family Estate vineyard portfolio. A true chateau-production bottling, the HFE Red Mountain is the epitome of classic style, and one that represents the Terroir of the Red Mountain AVA in a pure and elegant form.
My Review: Oh big red wines, how I enjoy you. A couple of weeks ago the folks over at Hedges Family Estates sent me a sampling of their portfolio to check out, and included in that was two bottles of the 2008 Red Mountain. On my wife’s recent trip to South Carolina with her parents to visit her brother and his wife I sent one of those bottles with her to share with her brother. Her early report was that it was a steak wine, so the other night we grilled up some steak and lobster tails and popped open the other bottle.
So a few weeks ago Wine Country Gift Baskets reached out to me about reviewing one of their gift baskets. I hesitated for a moment before responding, not because I wasn’t interested, but because I honestly had no idea how to go about reviewing something like a wine gift basket. In the end I replied that I was like to review one of their baskets, and I’m really glad I did.
Maybe it’s just me, but my initial reaction to the thought of wine gift baskets was something akin to how most people react when presented with a Rose’ – they see pink wine and instantly think of cheap white zinfandel. I’ve only been exposed to a few wine gift baskets in the past, and they were, honestly, kinda cheap. Because of this, I was impressed when the Steeplechase gift basket showed up.
I’d had a bit of an idea of what to expect ahead of time thanks to a link sent to me showing which gift basket was being sent my way, but there’s something about a semi-stock image on a website that doesn’t always do the real thing justice. The packaging was both visually appealing and practical – instead of a true basket, the entire package was cradled in a metal tub with some scroll work on it that, quite frankly, my wife and I plan to reuse.
The wine and all the foods were arranged in a way that made them easy to see, but also kept them in place. All in all it was a great packaging and it looked high quality, which I think is half the way to actually being high quality.
