Tagged : merlot

in Wine & Food

Howling Bluff Winery Sin Cera

2008 Vintage
Tasted: February 2011

I love Naramata Bench wines, and this Meritage blend of Merlot, Cab Franc, and Malbec does not disappoint! It is both reflective of the Bench terroir, and unique in its boldness. In a few words I would say the Sin Cera wine is rustic and complex with a big presence. While it is a “big red,” it is well balanced and seems to have a never ending amount of flavours trapped inside the bottle. I enjoyed this wine like the last Cuban cigar I had. It’s something to sit back and appreciate, and while it did go well with the steak dinner, I would almost rather drink it on it’s own to try and appreciate some of its subtleties.

Blackberry, pepper, cloves, and anise meet nice big tannins, a little wood, and a lingering finish. At $29 this one is a very good buy and a great value amongst some of its higher priced Naramata Bench counterparts. Drink, cellar, or maybe just drink.

Available at VQA stores, fine wine shops, and directly from Howling Bluff Winery.

 

in Wine & Food

Peter Franus Merlot

2006 Vintage
Tasted: November 2010

I am a huge fan of Peter Franus’ Rancho Chimiles grown Zinfandel and also of his Brandlin Vineyard Old Vines Zinfandel, so it is only natural to explore his other wines. I have a couple in my “cellar” that I have never even tasted, but it has been difficult for me to find the wines, so I tend to hoard them whenever I have personal stock, saving them for special occasions.

The Peter Franus Merlot marks a certain milestone in my life that shall remain somewhat private for now, but it felt like an appropriate celebratory drink to share with someone very special at the end of a long journey, and the beginning of a new one.

The wine took a while to open up, and I would suggest decanting for 30 minutes to an hour for best drinking.

Once it opened up this Merlot was delicious and everything I had hoped it would be. It possesses the perfectly ripe cherry, dark chocolate, and leather flavours of a great Merlot with a velvety texture. The colour is dark and a little rusty red. As far as Merlots go this one is well refined and full of delicious and complex flavours. In one word — sumptuous.

This is another knockout by Peter Franus. Add it to the list.

in Wine & Food

8th Generation Merlot

2009 Vintage
Tasted: October 2010

It’s that Merlot time of year for me again — a time of year to reacquaint myself with the ubiquitous yet almost overlooked grape varietal called Merlot.

It is everywhere, both on its own and in most red wine blends, but despite the mass availability, Merlot always has an allure.

The Okanagan produces some excellent examples of this varietal, and first up on my Tour de Merlot this year is the 2009 Merlot from Summerland’s 8th Generation Vineyard.

In short this is a very good and extremely well priced Merlot from the Okanagan Valley. I honestly can’t think of a better one for $21.99. In the Okanagan that price is really a steal!

The slightly longer version is that this wine has some nice blackberry on the nose, very nice dark cherries and spice on the palate, and a nice smokey finish with a hint of dark chocolate.

The 2009 8th Generation Merlot is surprisingly approachable both for a Merlot, and for such a young wine. At the point of writing this it is barely a year old, and this is probably why it is such a tasty wine now. Less time in oak barrels is not such a bad way to go!

The necessary components are there for mid-range aging from 5-10 years, but it’s not the huge oak bomb with “rip your mouth apart” tannins that a lot of Merlots can be. I’d like to lay a few of these down for 3-5 years, but I honestly don’t think they’ll last too long in the cellar!

This is an excellent food wine pairing well with the usual meat suspects, but could just as easily be enjoyed on its own.

I’d likely drink this on one of those awesome Fall days after a day spent raking leaves in the crisp air. Pop back inside for a hearty homemade stew and a couple of glasses of Merlot, and finish up by the fire. I’d pair it with a good spouse, but could even take it as solo indulgence. Either or…

You can read a little more about this wine and its availability at 8th Generation.

in Wine & Food

Township 7 Merlot 2006

Recently the media savvy winemaker Bradley Cooper at Township 7 Winery and the underground winery Black Cloud Wine called me out on my blog for not adding Township 7 to my list of wineries to see at the 2010 Spring Wine Fest here in the Okanagan.

Admittedly I felt a bit sheepish about it, and then I had to ask myself why I hadn’t thought about including T7. Is the wine bad? Did I have a bad tasting room experience there as a child? Is it because it’s the first winery I see when I drive to Naramata, or do I not like Bradley because he is the mayor of Burger 55 on Foursquare? All of these things come to mind, but none of them are true. Although I will say I am a bit jealous of the Burger 55 mayorship, but that is social media geekery for another time.

The real reason I overlooked Township 7 was probably because I actually drink the T7 Cab Sauv quite often — possibly too often! My local haunt in Penticton, The Hooded Merganser, has a decent by the glass wine list, but it rarely changes. When they recently added the Township Cab to the list I was on it like a fat kid on cake. Something new and delicious, and I am someone that typically orders the same thing over and over again. I’m also friendly with the local T7 sales rep, so I have been privy to a few off-the-grid tastings.

So inadvertently those factors probably lead me to seek out other wines on my wine touring adventures, but today in honour of the Spring Wine Fest, I decided to stop in for a secret rainy day lunch time tasting at the Township 7 Winery to try and dig myself out of the whole that I have dug, but also to venture beyond the familar-to-me Cabernet Sauvignon.

The wine shop is attached to the winery and is a neat place to visit because there are a bunch of barrels in the shop, I know this sounds obvious, but it’s not as common as you might think, and there really are horses just over the fence at the ranch next door. This is a real working winery. A forklift is buzzing around moving barrels. The winery is humbly nice and very Naramata Bench — a good thing I believe. Thankfully I beat the drove of people that came in behind me to avoid the rain and I managed to enjoy the wine tasting without being rushed.

On the list for my tasting today were:

  • Semillon
  • Oaked Chardonnay
  • Merlot/Cabernet Sauvignon
  • Merlot
  • Syrah

All of them were very good, and the prices were reasonable, but noteworthy of the bunch were: the Oaked Chardonnay, for its only lightly oaky fresh citrus influenced taste; the Merlot/Cabernet Sauvignon, for its great taste to value ratio (this one makes my great Okanagan Reds for $20 or less list); and the 2006 Merlot just because it was bombastic. What makes a wine bombastic you might ask? I can’t really put my finger on what exactly, but it certainly will put a smile on your face. Apparently the 2006 Merlot won some gold medals somewhere, but those details don’t overly concern me, this Merlot is simply a great Okanagan Red and I would drink it with or without food quite easily. Kudos Brad and watch your back over that Burger 55 mayorship.

Township 7 Winery
1450 McMillan Avenue, Penticton, BC V2A 8T4
[t] 250-770-1743