Monday, March 18, 2013

Three Wines on a Saturday Night (California / Chile)

My brother and his family came over for dinner tonight and we decided on some simple fare, namely sausages (from Garden City Meats) of 6 different flavours- that kind of flavour combination needs a variety of wines, and so I picked out a couple.  We started with the Belle Glos 2009 Meiomi Pinot Noir, one of my favourite California Pinots, I can't afford the single vineyard offerings but this 3-region blend is a real beauty, black cherry throughout with good acidity and a touch of an earthy quality that gives this wine some real character.  Next wine was suppose to be a Cali-Merlot but appetizer time went a little longer than expected, and so I grabbed a bottle of Montgras 2005 Reserva Quatro, this is a 4-berry blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Carmenere and Malbec.  It started out pretty muted but then started to offer up black licorice-mint, dark berries and a nice long finish.  While the Montgras was a last minute addition to the menu the RH Phillips 2005 Toasted Head Merlot was always set to make an appearance which is why right after I opened and refilled some glasses with the Chilean blend I opened and decanted the American Merlot.  Inspired by the 2001 I opened earlier in the week I thought it might be nice to open this wine to see how it was making out.   Hate to say it but I might have killed it with the decanting.  While the 2001 had some real character, granted all of the aged variety, the 2005 just seemed to sit there - yes it was smooth and silky but other than saying it was an easy drinking red there is not much else I can say about it; maybe if I hadn't decanted I'd have more to say. 

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