It’s really fun trying out a new wine a week. I’ll be honest with you guys though, I try out more than one wine a week. I like to think of it as experimenting — a really fun experiment. This week’s wine is a merlot. Merlot is common from the Bordeaux region of France. Sometimes merlot is made into a wine on its own, but other times, it is used as a blender with cabernet sauvignon. Today’s merlot is pure merlot.
- Vintage- 2014
- Producer- Emmolo
- Varietal- Merlot
- Region- Napa Valley
- Sub Region- Rutherford
- Country- U.S.A
Using the first two ‘S’s (sight and swirl) in evaluating wine, I can see that this merlot has a purplish hue to it with high viscosity. The second ‘S’ (smell) indicates that there are plum undertones to this merlot. In addition, the fruits seem to be in both a “jammy” and dried condition. As far as other non-fruit scents, I smell a hint of cinnamon.
Now onto the palate. This merlot has a medium-minus acidity and a medium-sweet sweetness level. The level in sweetness indicates a high levels of sugar which also results in a higher alcohol content — 15.1% to be exact.
As for a food pairing, you can’t go wrong with a nice rib-eye with this bottle of merlot.
This bottle is priced at about $55.
The Grape Affairs 