I first heard about this wine on the 3 Wine Guys podcast (thx, T-bone) so I picked up a bottle when I saw it at a wine store this summer. And I’m glad I did as it really shows off what blending young vines can do for a wine.

This is a blend of Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot from noted winemaker Chris Ringland. I’ll have to check out his other efforts given what magic he casts on this modest wine.

Henry’s Drive, “Pillar Box Red” 2005 ($10) - Deepest purple-black in color. This one needs to unwind a bit before it shows it’s best but once fully open it features nice black and red fruit aromas with fennel and a bit of chaparral. Full and rich black cherry and strawberry fruit gives way to a bit of licorice, vanilla and spice on the finish. A delicious fruit bomb for everyday drinking.

15% ABV
Stelvin closure
Score: 90
Rating:

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There’s a lot of great Merlot available on the bulk market from Napa Valley these days at very favorable prices so it’s not a stretch to find some great juice in some negociant bottlings like Castle Rock. I’ve reviewed a few other varietals from this producer here in the past and have been impressed with what I’ve found.

Castle Rock, Merlot, Napa Valley 2004 ($9) - Dark purple in color with aromas of blackberry, chocolate and cedar. In the mouth, there are blackberry, currant and mint flavors finishing with dusty tannins. A solid value in Merlot.

13.5% ABV
Natural cork closure
Score: 85

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Christmas dinner in our family is centered around a standing rib roast. To match with this meat, I almost always grab a Cabernet; not sure why, but this seems to be the classic accompaniment. Perhaps it’s the English origin of our tradition, where “claret” is often served with this entrée.

This year’s selection is the last bottle of Chateau Camensac 1995 that I picked up on sale a few years back for around $20. The Chateau is in the Haut-Médoc and was named a Fifth Growth in the 1855 Classification. Like a lot of Bordeaux estates, Camensac fell onto hard times for much of the 20th century but has made a resurgence of late and now employs famed consulting winemaker Michel Rolland. The blend is 60% Cabernet Sauvignon and 40% Merlot aged in one and two year old barrels for about 20 months before fining and bottling. A little over 20,000 cases are produced each vintage.

Chateau Camensac, Haut-Médoc 1995 ($25) - Medium garnet in color with no browning at the rim. Blackberry, chocolate and pencil lead aromas. Nicely balanced black cherry and currant flavors finishing fairly long with plush tannins. Elegant, understated and at it’s peak now. I’d say it should hold for another 3 or 4 years before decline. A nice value in aged Bordeaux if you can find it under $30.

12.5% ABV
Natural cork closure
Score: 89

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There’s a river of bulk wine running through Napa Valley and Fred Franzia is buying a lot of this juice and bottling for Trader Joe’s. I was somewhat surprised how good the Cabernet Sauvignon was so I picked up the Merlot and Chardonnay to try. Given the current downturn in demand for Merlot due to the “Sideways effect” I had high hopes this wine would be better than the Cab. While it’s OK, I was a bit disappointed.

Napa River, Merlot, Napa Valley 2003 ($5) - Garnet color with a purple rim. Blackberry, currant and vanilla aromas. In the mouth, this wine seems a bit disjointed with plum, blackberry, pepper and spice flavors finishing with medium tannins and some heat from alcohol (which I expect is closer to 13.5% than the listed 12.5%). The mid-palate seems to be missing here but it is still worth the $5 spent and three bucks better than the Charles Shaw “Kool-Aid” Merlot. Best to stick with the Napa River Cab for your low-end red, but a few bucks more will get you something quite a bit better.

12.5% ABV
Natural cork closure
Score: 80

As a wine blogger, I’ve taken advantage of some winery sampling campaigns in the past, but didn’t exactly know what I had on my hands when I received the Chateau Julien Challenge box. First of all, I received two samples: a non-vintage 2003 Chateau Julien Merlot and a Blackstone 2003 Merlot. This is pretty unusual right there, sending a competitors wine. There were also involved instructions about setting up eight glasses of the two wines in three flights, somewhat like the old “Pepsi Challenge” campaign of the ’80’s. After getting the glasses out and wines opened, I asked my son to pour the wines and setup the flights on the supplied paper mats. My job was simple; taste each flight and record my favorite. I also recorded tasting notes and scores which I will present at the end of this post.

Flight 1:

Wine “A” had a very noticeable off aroma that made me think there was something wrong with the sample. It was an aroma I hadn’t encountered before, but it is something between vegetal and too much oak. In each flight, this aroma gave away this wine every time. Once tasted, however, I found the wine to be soft with plum flavors and a bit of fresh bell pepper which I didn’t mark the wine down for. Wine “B” didn’t have this off aroma and followed a typical Merlot profile of black cherry, currant and some cedar. In the mouth, this wine had noticeably more forward cherry and currant fruit and a bit longer finish than wine “A”. I preferred wine B with a score of 86 vs. 79 for wine A.

Flight 2:

Wine “B” was the winner here again, which I thought was the same as in flight 1. The off aroma of wines “A” and “C” really gave this one away again.

Flight 3:

Wines “A” and “C” were my favorites here and I surmised the same as wine B in the first two flights. Again “B” was marred by the off aroma noted before.

When I learned that the Chateau Julien Merlot was wine “B” in the first two flights and “A” and “C” in the third flight I wasn’t too surprised, since I wouldn’t send out a better wine than mine in such a challenge. What’s interesting is that they remained very distinct to me in both the aroma and flavor department. I don’t review wines on a single tasting, so I pulled the bottles out on day two and three for a second and third tasting. Interestingly, the Blackstone off aroma has almost totally receded and the wine is much less identifiable from the aroma after a day of air. The flavors are consistent from my notes from the first tasting, however.

So here are my full notes from three days of tasting:

Chateau Julien, Merlot, “Barrel Aged”, Monterey County NV 2003 ($12/sample) - Dark purple in color with aromas of black cherry and cedar. Soft and supple in the mouth with forward black currant and cherry fruit along with some spice and moderate tannins. Enough structure for a couple more years in the bottle but I’d enjoy it now for the forward fruit. A very solid Merlot.

ABV not stated on label 13.9% ABV
Composite cork
Score: 86

Blackstone Winery, Merlot, California 2003 ($10/sample) - Medium ruby in color with aromas of black cherry and bell pepper. When first tasted, there was a strong off aroma that was someplace between vegetal and oak char that gave this one away on the CJ Challenge tasting. Tasted again on day 2 and 3, this aroma dissipated and a nice clove element emerged. My final score is a composite of my three days of tasting. In the mouth there is plum, fresh bell pepper, mint and spice with fine tannins. A pretty standard Merlot at this price point.

13.5% ABV
Composite cork
Score: 82

So I’m not sure if this tasting format really proved anything other than Chateau Julien Merlot is better than Blackstone’s. It will be interesting to compare notes with other blogger participating in this challenge to see if I missed anything.

Mankas Hills Vineyards, “Amelie”, Suisun Valley 2004 ($14.90)

Mankas Hills is a family winery with a passion for Cabernet Sauvignon and, interesting enough, for blogging. They are among a few wineries that have taken the plunge into the blogisphere as another way to connect with customers. I received this sample after responding to their post a few weeks back and applaud their initiative as being the first California winery to take a page from the Stormhoek playbook. If you haven’t heard of the Suisun Valley AVA, you are not alone, as I had never heard of it either. According to Appellation America, the AVA has a long history of growing wine grapes and being just north of the Napa Valley, it is not a stretch to expect some pretty interesting Cabernet-based blends coming from the appellation.

Amelie is one of those blends being 75% Estate Cabernet Sauvignon and 25% Merlot grown elsewhere. The wine is garnet-purple in color with aromas of blackcurrant, blackberry, eucalyptus and vanilla. In the mouth it is nice and rich with nicely concentrated blackberry and blackcurrant fruit finishing with sweet tannins a very slightly bitter note which didn’t bother me very much. This is a very good wine and a nice value at less than $15 a bottle. 13.9% ABV. Finished with natural cork. Score: 8/10

I hope more wineries follow Mankas Hills’ lead and send bloggers samples of their wines for review. It will certainly extend the conversation about their wines far outside the traditional wine media and encourage positive word of mouth. So if you see Amelie in the supermarket or wine store, give it a try.

Vera De Estenas, Crianza, D.O. Utiel Requena 2001 ($16) - A blend of 50% Tempranillo, 35% Cabernet Sauvignon & 15% Merlot. Dark ruby in color with aromas of blackcurrant, spice and mint. Black cherry fruit together with black pepper and spices make for a delicious wine and excellent value. Score: 9/10

Today’s podcast is another vintner profile show with a discussion with Wolffer Estate Vineyards winemaker Roman Roth.

Show Notes:
00:23 - Welcome and show theme
00:35 - Wolffer Estate Background
01:24 - Discussion with winemaker Roman Roth
25:03 - Tasting Notes
25:15 - Wolffer, La Ferme Martin, Chardonnay 2003 ($13.50)
25:39 - Wolffer, Chardonnay, “Reserve�? 2002 ($19.50) +
26:06 - Wolffer, Chardonnay, “Estate Selection�? 2001 ($29)
26:33 - Wolffer, La Ferme Martin, Merlot 2002 ($13.50)
26:54 - Wolffer, Merlot, “Reserve�? 2002 ($22)
27:12 - Wolffer, Merlot, “Estate Selection�? 2001 ($35) *
27:41 - Best of Tasting *
27:46 - Best Value +
28:20 - Contact Details
28:48 - Next Show Theme

Feedback: winecast@gmail.com | Audio comments: +01-206-33-WINE-9 (+01-206-339-4639)
Copyright 2006 Acan Media, Inc. Licensed to the public under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

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Simi, Merlot, Sonoma County 2002 ($16) - Deep ruby color with blackberry, cassis and menthol aromas; plum and black cherry fruit flavors combine with some pepper and moderate tannins. Very well put together. Score: 8/10

Update 12/25/05: This wine has improved with some aeration, making it more like an 8.5/10 on day 2. The wine might also benefit from another year of two of cellaring to show it’s best. Tasty!

The theme for this month’s event is provided by Derrick at An Obsession with Food who asks us to Judge a Bottle By Its Cover. Basically, he just asked us to pick up a bottle only selected by its label art and not any other factor such as producer, reputation, vintage or critic review. I thought it would also be interesting to pick up only wines from producers I am unfamiliar with.

So I went to the wine store and found my first selection right away from Nova Wines the producer of the famous Marilyn Merlot, the 2005 Norma Jeane Merlot. The label is a stunning shot of the young Norma Jeane Baker in a bikini sitting on a large flower. It certainly commands attention alongside more modest labels. It’s a blend of 80% Merlot and 20% Syrah from the Tallerico Vineyard in French Camp, California. Here are my tasting notes:

Nova Wines, “Norma Jeane”, Merlot 2005 ($10.50) - Clear ruby in color with explosive wild cherry and papaya aromas; simple wild cherry flavors with a hint of the tropical fruit on the finish. Quite quaffable, but not up to the latest crop of Beaujolais Nouveau tasted on my last podcast. Tasted at cellar temperature, but a bit better slightly chilled. Scores - Label: 10/10; Wine: 7.5/10

My second wine stood out from the rest on the shelf for it’s minimalist typography and 3-dot esthetic. This wine is an Eric Soloman Selection, who seems to always have great typographical label art. It is from a co-op of 15 wineries and growers in Portugal’s Duoro valley and is a blend of old vines fruit from all 15 producers. Being a typographer from the pre-computer days, I really appreciate the clean use of sans-serif font and white space; a very elegant label that attracted my attention.

Lavradores de Feitoria, “Tres Bagos�?, Duoro, Portugal 2002 ($16) - Deep ruby color with aromas of blackberry, earth and spices; nicely concentrated blackberry fruit and black pepper flavors with dusty tannins and high acidity. Another very good food wine and one of the best table wines from Portugal I have tried. Scores - Label: 9.5/10; Wine: 8.5/10

So both wines take an honor this time; for best label art, Norma Jeane Merlot 2005 and the best tasting wine is the Lavradores de Feitoria, “Tres Bagos�? 2002.

Thanks again to Derrick for the theme and I’ll see you all next month.

Feedback: winecast@gmail.com | Audio comments: +01-206-33-WINE-9 (+01-206-339-4639)
Copyright 2005 Tim Elliott. Licensed to the public under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

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