After a couple month hiatus and even longer venture away from Vino lets get back at it!
What better way than to start back up with a mystery bottle of wine that I had given to me by one of my friends in the industry. I have long stated that I have little to no knowledge of Italian wine so might as well make this a learning experience as well as dusting off of the blog for some tasting notes. Merlot does hold a special spot in my heart as the varietal that made me a consistent wine drinker. Italy not so much. It remains an enigma wrapped inside a question mark. So lets mix them both together and see what we get.
-Appearance: Bright and clear. Not too heavily extracted as you can clearly see through to the other side.
-Nose: Somewhat light on the nose. You get tart unripe cherries and a bit of freshly dampened pavement.
-Palate: Low acid, low alcohol, low tannins, just very little body or viscosity to this wine at all a little flimsy.
Thoughts: I could have guessed that this guy wouldn’t be that much to write home about just on the nose, but tasting is believing. Unfortunately the nose didn’t lie. After all it is a super cheap bottle of wine. Online I saw it for as low as $4.99 in one spot….. This was after I decided to pour a glass. I would get a glass but only at a mid rate Italian restaurant and I wouldn’t pay more than five bucks for a glass. But this bottle does scream for some spaghetti and meatballs.
-Cheers!
ntodda.wordpress.com 
Sounds like an ok Merlot, but disappointing.
I love a good Merlot. Didn’t realize they made good one sin Italy until I tried this http://socialvignerons.com/2017/07/27/2014-sansonina-merlot-veronese-italy/
You’d have to go further North though.
Making good Merlot in Sicily, what a challenge. The grape doesn’t like heat so much and easily turns into a jammy soulless… ‘thing’. That’s probably part of the reason why it went out of fashion in the US, California is generally speaking too hot for it, especially these days.
Anyway, thanks for sharing todd 🙂
Cheers
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for the recommendation, I’ll try to hunt that one down!
LikeLike