Wine Review
| Napa Valley Merlot 1997 | ||
| Rating: | ||
| Winery: | Stags' Leap Winery | |
| Country: |  |
United States |
| Regions: Stag's Leap District AVA | ||
| Description: A rich, 14.2% alcohol, Napa Valley Merlot. | ||
| Price: | 50.00 | |
| Christmas Red |
|
|
| by AlexB | ||
| Rating: |   |
|
|
Rummaging through the cellar looking for a red or two to open for our family Christmas dinner, which is roast turkey with an endless number of side dishes, I found a bottle of this wine and decided it was long since time we opened it up. I was right and wrong, it was excellent and I'm glad we opened it. But it had an excellent balance and plenty of tannin and acid left, so it likely could have happily kept on aging down in the cellar for several years to come. This wine has a deep plum core that fades to an orange halo around the edges. The color change is quite dramatic and it has an amazing red glow to it during the pour. The initial nose is lots of fruit and alcohol. The taste ripe fruit, cherries, a hint of vanilla (maybe, I kept chasing the flavour trying to settle on it), with nice warm alcohol up front and good balanced tannins and acid in the finish. An excellent wine, my only regret is we don't have another half dozen bottles to open up and see how it ages over the next 5 years. Not that I'm sure I could convince myself to wait anyway. |
||