Freemark Abbey Merlot

Freemark Abbey
Merlot
Napa Valley
St. Helena, California, U.S.A.
2007
14.5%
$19.98 at Twin Liquors, Bee Cave, TX

Color: Dark ruby
Nose: Sour cherry, sage, a hint of orange peel
Body: Medium
Front: Cherry
Middle: Cassis, salt, coffee
Back: Hint of pepper, soft tannins
Burns clean?: Yes
Cap: Cork

I am a fan of Freemark Abbey wines, which I think are underrated. To the company's credit, they've priced their wines realistically, and this is a particularly good bargain (though I did get it on sale).

This is a Merlot, not a Cab, to be sure: it doesn't have the beefy body, but the herby aromatics are pronounced and interesting. The fruit is from Rutherford, and you can tell by the haunting, microfine tannins. My guess is that in two years this wine will be even more interesting on the palate than it is now.

Christian Mouiex Pomerol

Christian Moueix
[Gran Vin]
Merlot, Cabernet Franc
Libourne, Gironde, France
2005
13.5%
$18.99 at Wine Pro, Paducah, KY

Color: Dark ruby
Nose: Mushroom, cherry
Body: Medium
Front: Cherry
Middle: Coffee
Back: Chocolate, firm tannins
Burns clean?: Yes
Cap: Cork


Another somewhat disappointing Bordeaux. If I had a bottle of this, I'd wait another year before opening it, perhaps two, in hopes that it'll integrate better. As with many Bordeaux, it needs air, but even then, though the fruit and the chocolate come out, it retains a slight astringency and resistance. If you dig astringency and resistance, you will *love* it! You perv.

It wasn't bad with chili and beans, I dare say, on a frigid night. 

Shafer Merlot

Shafer Vineyards
Merlot
Napa Valley
Oakville, California, USA
2006
14.9%
$38.99 -- Twin Liquors, Austin, TX

Color: Deep ruby
Nose: Cherry, espresso, raspberry, cream
Body: Full
Front: Cherry
Middle: Licorice, raspberry, orange peel
Back: Cigar wrapper, licorice, soft tannins
Burns clean?: Yes
Cap: Cork

This is one of my favorite wines. It's rich but balanced; elegant but interesting. It has a million flavors bouncing around, in different unfoldings depending on how long the bottle's been open. It goes well with food (phenomenally with roasted vegetables) and everyone to whom I've introduced it likes it.

Note: Recently I had the 2007, and it was even better. More red fruit, just as lush, just as powerful; a tad more California-ish than the 2006, though it might grow more austere and Frenchy with time. I'm not sure that I would recommend allowing that to happen.

Silverado Merlot

Silverado Vineyards
Merlot
Napa Valley
Napa, California, USA
2002
14.5%
$27.99 -- Twin Liquors, Austin, TX

Color: Dark garnet
Nose: Cherry, orange, anis, a touch of heat
Body: Medium
Front: Strawberry
Middle: Chocolate, graham cracker
Back: Leather, oak, soft tannins
Burns clean?: Yes
Cap: Cork

Merlot! I often love it. I visited Silverado Vineyards recently and enjoyed all of the Merlots they poured. They aren't super-complex, but they are charming, and have a nice acidity to balance the usual Napa bigness. And so perhaps unsurprisingly: I'm eating a tomato and avocado with lime and oil and vinegar salady sort of thing, and the 2002 pairs elegantly.

Note: The 2005 is really delightful: it has a healthy dose of mint on the nose and a bit on the palate. This is no coincidence, as there used to be eucalyptus trees around the vineyards from which the grapes came. They were removed after the '05 vintage, however, which I consider a most unfortunate decision. Boo! But...choose your poison, wisely.

Robert Keenan Wine Dinner

ONE OF THE BEST RESTAURANTS in Austin, Mirabelle, is just around the bend from my place (or was; it closed in 2012). The food is excellent, and a few of the entrees are among the best in town. The wine list is really, really good: not vast, but well-designed. It pairs well with the menu, and there are always good deals to be had for someone with a little wine knowledge. Those without such knowledge will be thrilled.

Keenan Vineyards on Spring Mountain, Napa Valley, CA

"You get infected...with this thing in your blood," Michael Keenan told us, about getting into the wine business; "it's like a virus." I agree, and I ain't even in the wine business. I've reviewed Keenan wines before, so I was delighted at the opportunity to meet Michael Keenan and to taste some of the winery's other offerings.

Before reflecting on the event itself--a different experience from my previous wine dinners--let me run down the wines, for surfers looking for opinions about how these wines were drinking:

2007 Keenan "Spring Mountain" Chardonnay: On the nose, some buttercream, a little pineapple, but reasonably tight. On the palate, excellently balanced, with lime, pineapple, butter, even a hint of mint, which was delightful, on the finish. Bourgogney. Splendid with a little crepe, prosciutto and gruyere canape. Circa $25 retail.

2006 Keenan Napa Valley Merlot: On the nose, licorice and cherry, with a hint of cinnamon. Chocolate, violets, and black cherry on the palate. I really liked this--I think it was my favorite. For a comparison, see this entry. Even better, as it's still young, with the arctic char and fava bean puree. They cheated by doing a Merlot reduction alongside--but I saw that coming, and tried the wine with the fava bean puree first, and it was a charming combination. Circa $30 retail.

2005 Keenan Napa Cabernet, circa $50 retail: On the nose, briary, smoky, plum-ridden; really intense. On the palate, the usual cherry, licorice, and plum, harmoniously balanced. A caveat: I favor  mountain wines from the Napa/Sonoma areas, as you'll see from some other entries. And this is an '05: it's still young, and it had not been open long--yet it was damn tasty. And the same goes for...

2005 "Spring Mountain" Cabernet, Reserve: Pepper, plum, bell pepper, blackberry, and tar on the nose--though not tremendously focused. On the palate, more focused plum, licorice, smoke, and  charming sage at the close. A charming wine in general, though worth the $90 price tag? Hard to say. Both Cabernets were delightful--and showed better--with the lamb enchilada and espresso crema sauce.

2005 Reserve Merlot, "Mailbox Vineyard": This has the hallmarks of a young vineyard. On the nose, black fruit, but a little sweetness in the aromas, and fascinating desert sage. On the palate, chocolate covered raspberry, plum, orange, and a hint of cilantro. Those with less affection for the mountain style, with its briary smoke, will like this one more, I think; and too, it's young. These wines are built to age, as my previous encounters with them suggested. This paired well, though not perhaps as elegantly as the previous courses, with a beef filet topped with foie gras.

The genre of the wine dinner is still a bit of a mystery to me. I'm tempted to say that its characteristics are not generalizable--that each wine dinner tends to show its peculiarities in relation to the venue. Mirabelle is in a comparatively wealthy, comparatively suburban neighborhood, and its chef is a player in Austin's food and beverage realm. So perhaps it's not surprising that this dinner saw a fascinating combination of established, older folks with younger, mover-shaker business types. I'll do another of these dinners before long, and to test my theory, I'll choose an utterly new venue to me.

I had the good luck to be seated with a charmingly clumsy photographer (who, I suspect, also preferred the Merlot), some mover-shaker folks (who, appallingly, left behind most of their wine and decamped early), and some longtime fans of Mirabelle. I was struck by the appreciation that Mirabelle's owner and head chef, Michael Vilim, showed for his staff, both by introducing them to us during the dinner and by naming all of them--servers, buser, and sous chefs--on the menu. A big small thing. (New York City peeps: please do post a comment if you have been to a restaurant-hosted wine dinner at which you learned the full names of all of your servers and sous chefs.)

Michael Keenan has done a million of these things, you can tell, and he got up three times to talk about the wines, but otherwise hung back or cruised among the tables, informally chatting. That, it seemed to me, was an ideal approach--no pitch, no bullshit, no anxiousness, just passion. Or perhaps, a virus.

L'Ecole No 41 Merlot

L'Ecole No 41 Vineyards and Winery
Merlot
Columbia Valley
Lowden, Washington, USA
2006
14.3%
$20.99 -- Spec's, Austin, TX

Color: Dark garnet, a hint of purple
Nose: Black cherry, plum, hint of cinnamon
Body: Medium
Front: Cherry, cassis, black tea
Middle: Pepper, venison, chocolate
Back: Leather, soft tannins
Burns clean?: Mostly
Cap: Cork

It's been awhile since I reviewed a Merlot, but that's not because I haven't been drinking them. They're still a great bargain, if you know which ones aren't over-oaked, at restaurants and in wine stores. This one is a good example. I can't stand the label, though on close inspection it's clever. It's not terrifically expensive. It's quite lovely; balanced, elegant, with suggestive flavors and aromas coming in and out, like orange, cotton candy, even lime.

It went well with the grilled steak and the almond soup I had this evening. It benefits tremendously from a little airing out; I decanted it for half an hour before I started in on it.

A note to my regular readers: I promise both of you, in public, right now (because otherwise I will forget these ideas), that I'm going to do three special entries this summer, in no particular order. They will be

• An entry on my favorite wines among the ones I've reviewed since the blog began. This will, by thunder, become an annual thing--and in the future I'll do my favorite wines of the intervening year.
• An entry on the wine bars of Austin, Texas. I'm slowly working my way through them and already have important wisdom to share. But I need to take some pictures and some notes.
• An entry on Napa Valley, 2010: I'm headed back not long from now.

Now: hold me to it! berate me if I don't pony up!

Groth Merlot

Groth Vineyards and Winery
Merlot
Napa Valley
Oakville, California, USA
1998
13.8%
$33.99 -- Twin Liquors, Austin, TX

Color: Medium to light peachy garnet
Nose: Pepper, oolong tea, orange, black currant
Body: Medium
Front: Dried cherry, mint
Middle: Plum, tar
Back: Firm tannins, tobacco
Burns clean?: Yes
Cap: Cork

This wine is much to my taste. 12 years old, American Merlot, and still tannic, but nicely balanced. It's seriously old-worldy. It's like...grandpa's fruit closet. Didn't your grandpa have a fruit closet?

Your obvious question is, is it really worth $34? Not if you like Lodi Zinfandel, no. But if you like licking a steering wheel from the 1970s or chewing bubble gum while smoking a Gloria Cubana, yes. It might benefit from a medium-strong cheese as accompaniment.

Gary Farrell Merlot

Gary Farrell Winery
Merlot 
Sonoma County
Healdsburg, California, USA
2001
14.2%
$20.99 -- Twin Liquors, Austin, TX

Color: Medium garnet
Nose: Bright cherry, herbes de Provence, licorice
Body: Medium
Front: Cassis
Middle: Cherry, sage
Back: Coffee, graham cracker
Burns clean?: Yes
Cap: Cork

What a delicious wine this is. I'm going to go back and get more this weekend. It's not terrifically complex, but it's beautifully balanced, with tart fruit and sweeter notes, almost imperceptible tannins, and an herby, hypnotizing nose. There's not much oak: no vanilla, no milkiness, perhaps only a very light pineyness at the edges. The bottle declares it to be 84% Merlot and 16% Cabernet, and it's got a Bordeauxish flavor, though I couldn't be more specific as I haven't had enough Bordeaux, by a long shot--a situation that I will have to remedy soon.

Columbia Crest H3 Merlot

Columbia Crest Winery
H3
Merlot (Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Syrah)
Horse Heaven Hills
Washington, USA
2007
14.5%
$8.99 -- Costco, Austin, TX

Color: Dark garnet
Nose: Espresso oak chocolate
Body: Medium to full
Front: Raspberry
Middle: Shaved dark chocolate
Back: Creosote, charred mesquite, bay, milk
Burns clean?: Yes
Cap: Cork

This is one of the most charming $9 wines I've ever had, from anywhere. It's not elegant; it's rustic, at least at this point, with insistent tannins. But the tannins orbit the chocolate flavor, which I take to be an illusion of dark fruit and oak, so they make sense. Whoever blended this wine (they call it a Merlot, but it's only 79 percent Merlot) knows what he or she is doing. The website says it's Ray Einberger: thank you, Mr. Einberger.

Not only is this wine good with food -- from spicy chorizo to blue cheese and romaine salad and baked chicken (with a good dose of Tony Cachere's) -- but it tastes quite different with each dish. In my business, "interesting" is a bad word: it substitutes for a more precise delineation of the intellectual merits of something, and your laziness about doing that delineation is meant to imply that there's not much actual substance in the thing you're talking about. This wine is interesting in an older sense; it's absorbing and provocative, without being overbearing.

It snowed all of today here in Austin, Texas, which is sublimely ridiculous.

Franciscan Merlot

Franciscan Winery
Merlot
Napa Valley
Rutherford, California, USA
2005
13.5%
$17.99 -- HEB, Austin, TX

Color: Dark garnet
Nose: Sour plum, raspberry, cherry cola
Body: Medium to full
Front: Ripe plum
Middle: Orange, espresso
Back: Sage, soft but persistent tannins
Burns clean?: Yes
Cap: Cork

There is a decent dose of oak in this wine, but I find it nicely balanced by the fruitiness. I've heard the Franciscan Merlot praised on various wino sites, and though I've often tasted it at the winery, I've never had a bottle before. It's good stuff, at a decent price, and went well with grilled veggies and ribeye. It would be hard to lose on this one, unless you despise tannins altogether.

Casa Lapostolle Cuvée Alexandre Merlot

Casa Lapostolle
Cuvée Alexandre
Merlot, Carmenère
Apalta Vineyard
Colchagua Valley
Santa Cruz, Chile
2006
14.5%
$21.99 -- Grape Vine Market, Austin, TX

Color: Deep garnet
Nose: Coffee, blueberry, sage
Body: Medium to full
Front: Dried cherries
Middle: Spicy raspberry bacon, sautéed button mushrooms
Back: Acorns, tingly tannins, licorice
Burns clean?: Mostly

Cap: Cork

The first Cuvee Alexandre I had was in the Palmer House hotel in Chicago. It was the Cabernet, and I really enjoyed it. It was luscious but well-balanced, a nice complement to the luscious (though admittedly a little baroque) main lobby of that hotel (pictured here).

The Merlot has the same general profile: big, fruity and spicy, but with a strong earthy component that balances out the oak and the fruit. It has grip and would go well with many different kinds of food. It's only been open a half hour, so I can't be sure this effect is consistent, but the tannins are fascinating--like pop rocks, a little bit, fine but crumbly, lending a nice brightness to the texture.

And bacon will almost always win me over.

Whitehall Lane Merlot

Whitehall Lane Winery

Merlot

Napa Valley
St. Helena, California, USA
2006
14.5%
$19.99 -- Costco, Austin, TX

Color: Medium to dark garnet
Nose: Honey, thyme, plum
Body: Medium

Front: Hi-C

Middle: RC ColaTM, fig

Back: Soft tannins, cafe au lait

Burns clean?: No, unfortunately! But it was worth it.

Cap: Cork

After a string of quasi-disappointments, this wine's making me happy. The nose is delightful, and I don't hate Hi-C in wine the way some other folks seem to--as long as the taste develops into something else comparatively quickly. When it was open an hour, if I were tasting it blind, I think I'd have guessed it was a cheap California pinot noir--that's how fabricated-fruity it was. But it's getting more layers, as described in the tasting notes above, as it opens up, which is lovely. And the color is stunning.

Usually I talk about the food I eat with the wines, but as my workload gets heavier, the leftovers begin to gather about the house like guests on the third day. So it's not as interesting to talk about the food, which is forced into duty, and the wines tend to be powerful reds that can overcome leftover stew and roast beef.

Even my musical world has grown a bit constricted. I'm listening to Jack Johnson tonight; he comforts me when I have a ton of work to do, for some reason--I suppose surf music is supposed to do that! Coincidentally, however, it's not bad with the Merlot: laid-back, but occasionally accusatory, if not a tad self-righteous.

Deerfield Merlot Cuvee

Deerfield Ranch Winery
Merlot Cuvee
North Coast
Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Sangiovese, Malbec, Cabernet Franc
Kenwood, California, USA
2004
14.2%
$25.00 -- Vino 100, Lakeway, TX

Color: Dark garnet
Nose: Oak, cinnamon cherry pie, licorice, cat pee
Body: Medium
Front: Plum bacon
Middle: Espresso, blackberry, oak
Back: Sticky tannins, sage
Burns clean?:
Cap: Cork

For those who've never had plum bacon, this will be an interesting wine. It's plentifully oaked; if you are an oak-hater, don't even bother with this one, it's uncontroversially oaky. But I like a little oak, and the eddies of earth flavor it can add to the fruit. That said, most of the fruit at this point seems to be on the nose, not so much in the palate. With barbecue-sauce-coated slow-roasted prime rib, it was a fantastic combination inasmuch as the spicy, woody meat helped throw the wine's fruit into relief.

Sattui Los Carneros Merlot

V. Sattui Winery
Los Carneros
Henry Ranch
Merlot
Napa Valley
St. Helena, California, USA
2005
14.5%
$27.00 -- Sattui Winery, St. Helena, CA

Color: Dark garnet
Nose: Raspberries, vanilla
Body: Medium to Full
Front: Spicy ripe cherries
Middle: Chocolate cream, pickles
Back: Earthy tannins
Burns clean?: Yes
Cap: Cork

I'm going to take a political moment, for which I apologize up front. Sattui will soon be changing its label design, and I object. I look at this bottle, with its perfect label, all Napa baroqueness and charming pseudo-old-world-pretension, and I love it. It's perfect.  I'm not nostalgic (much): this is an aesthetic and political judgment. Usually I say, with Hafiz, that all things point to Allah--and if the redesign were as good as this label, I'd say, go for it! But not this time, on either account.

None of this imminent disappointment should distract from an appreciation of the stunning aromatics and rich flavors of this wine, which kicks most Merlots' asses, regardless of hemisphere of origin. It's probably drinking at its peak right now. With the pulled pork barbecue tonight, it was frankly stunning: like pork chocolate mousse.  If you find that description grossifyin', you need to be drinking things like this instead of this.

Sinskey Merlot

Robert Sinskey Vineyards
Merlot
Los Carneros
Napa, California, USA2004
14.3%
$23.99 -- Spec's, Austin, TX

Color: Medium garnet
Nose: Violets, raspberry, vanilla
Body: Medium
Front: Cassis, pomegranate, cardamom
Middle: Fennel, roasted fig, bitter chocolate
Back: Espresso, a hint of greenness, like kiwi
Burns clean?: Yes
Cap: Cork

As is probably obvious from the stacked flavor description above, I adore this wine. This is, to my young and inexperienced mind, what Merlot is all about. It's different from, if perhaps inspired by, some Bordeaux classics, the Merlot-heavy ones, that I also like. But it has structure and complexity; the latter exhibited in a mixture on the palate that eludes clear description but that's a mashup of the tastes listed above, and a few more, too. I didn't decant this one, but let it unwind slowly out of the bottle.

Sinskey uses organically grown grapes to make this wine, and all of their wines (I confess to having spent an hour, perhaps more, at the winery) are subtle and complex. Okay, the cardamom taste is subtle, but really, how do you make any kind of cardamom taste out of grapes or oak? Not to say that this kind of alchemy is the foundation, origin, or soul of winemaking--probably, like all aesthetic endeavors, there's no foundation per se. But it's enchanting, that's for sure. Go out and buy a bunch of this, and then send me some.

Canoe Ridge Merlot

Canoe Ridge Vineyard
Merlot
Horse Heaven Hills
Columbia Valley
Walla Walla, Washington, USA
2005
14.5%
$14.99 -- Spec's, Austin, TX

Color: Deep garnet
Nose: Cinnamon, nutmeg, licorice
Body: Medium; round, like there's a hole in the middle, yet not watery
Front: Dried cherries
Middle: Cream, plum
Back: Cedar, very soft tannins
Burns clean?: Yes
Cap: Cork

I read about this wine in Time Magazine online, and was intrigued. It's so cheap! And yet, so tasty! The nose is lovely, though utterly at odds with what the label tells me I should smell. The palate is multilayered, but not overpowering, like yer Merlots tend to be. But it's got presence and weight, and paired well with the New York Strip and organic lettuce and tomato salad I made this evening. The tannins are barely there, but there, giving some texture.

It also paired perfectly with the Back Yard Tire Fire that was on the stereo; their record Bar Room Semantics. They're a working-class band, from Chicago, and have a bit of a Wilco sound, but a bit more economic urgency and a bit more actual laid-backness. They have a song on this record about having to wait for your friends to pick you up and how easy it is to lose your cool, even though the stakes are so low and clearly they're not doing it on purpose to piss you off. That is the sort of reflection that this wine ought to induce.

Note: 4 January 2010. I had the 2002, and it's over the hill, by my standards; just strong plum and oak, both too sweet, coming through. A few weeks ago, I had the 2004, and it was quite good, layered and interesting for a $15 bottle.

Markham Merlot

Markham Vineyards
Merlot
Napa Valley
St. Helena, California, USA2005
13.8%
$17.99 -- HEB, Austin, TX

Color: Medium garnet
Nose: Cassis, chocolate, flowers
Body: Medium
Front: Raspberry
Middle: Cafe au lait
Back: Cedar, toasted bagel
Burns clean?: Yes
Cap: Cork

My first taste of this wine was at the Blue Duck Tavern in Washington, DC. It's a superfancy restaurant, and as at most such joints right now, the Merlots are the best values on the list. I had it decanted, since I was dining alone and was expecting a comparatively short evening, and also maybe 'cause I knew I would enjoy the spectacle of pretension (they've got humongous decanters there) brought to bear on a bottle of wine that sells for $17 retail.

That night it was fabulous with roasted pork rib and fingerling potatoes with bone marrow. It's not a big wine, and not many-layered. But it's really smooth, with soft tannins, and plays nice with food. Good with a sunset, or Eartha Kitt, or after some exercise.

Rombauer Carneros Merlot

Rombauer Vineyards
Merlot
Carneros
St. Helena, California, USA
2006
14.4%
$35.00 -- ALC, Austin, TX

Color: Medium to deep garnet
Nose: Raspberry, spice, cocoa
Body: Medium to Full
Front: Ripe raspberry
Middle: Sweet basil
Back: Chocolate, soft tannins
Burns clean?: Yes
Cap: Cork

The flavors in this wine are stunning, but it's the structure that's so impressive. Get some and drink it. It will disappoint few. No, never mind. Shun it. Drive down the price. Send me bottles that you disdain to drink because you saw Sideways, dammit, and you know that truly deep-feeling Western subjects favor Pinot Noir and never drink Merlot.*

I had this one with a classic Cabernet meal: seared steak, garlic mashed potatoes, blue cheese-dressed salad. It stood up to it like a sophomore English major fighting for a B+ instead of a B, and as so often happens in that case, it triumphed. And this was a well-marbled steak, so unlike the sophomore's, this was a real victory.

* Wasn't that a Merlot that Miles ended up drinking, in ecstasy, at the end...? Just sayin'.

Rutherford Hill Merlot

Rutherford Hill Winery
Merlot
Rutherford, California2004
14.2%
$21.99 -- Whole Foods, Austin, TX

Color: Medium-dark ruby
Nose: Olive, violets
Body: Medium to full
Front: Plum
Middle: Vanilla, dust
Back: Cherry, wood
Burns clean?: Yes
Cap: Cork

It's interesting, but of course not revelatory of my character, that I have only reviewed one Merlot. Tonight that all changes. There will be 100 percent more Merlot reviewed here at Caveat Emptyer. THERE WILL BE MERLOT.

This is not Sideways. But I confess that what I like about this Merlot is that it's like a Cabernet--big, rich, multilayered, with the signature of Rutherford in its texture. My father introduced me to it at Daisy Mae's steak restaurant, in Tucson, Arizona, long ago, and we have had many a delightful bean-laden meal there with it.

I think it'll go with lots of food, like the paprika chicken and French onion soup on tonight's docket, and almost any kind of music short of Rage Against the Machine, which should always be listened to with a glass of Sauvignon Blanc.

Keenan Merlot

Robert Keenan Winery
Napa Valley Merlot
St. Helena, Napa Valley, CA
2004
14.3%
$44.50 -- Pastiche Wine Shop, Tucson, AZ
Color: Deep garnet
Nose: Cassis, mocha, smoke
Body: Medium to Full
Front: Berries
Middle: Spicy
Back: Leather car seats
Burns clean?: Yes
Cap: Cork

Give it air! It comes out a little tight, even after years in the bottle. This is a little more French than I'm used to in a Napa Merlot. Hear hear. It's well-built, economical, and will run smoothly for years; plus, who doesn't like leather seats?*

I'm amused to find that this is the first Merlot I've reviewed.

*No animals were harmed in the writing of this review.