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.
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Copyright 2005 Tim Elliott. Licensed to the public under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
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Tim,
Thank goodness you didn’t pick the bottle with the Marilyn Monroe nude. I’d have to label my roundup as Not Safe For Work.
I’m sorry to hear it wasn’t better, but thanks so much for participating. Expect the round-up this weekend.
Ha! That would be the day… as I said on the podcast, I would have otherwise passed on this wine because of my perception that they are a rip-off since most folks don’t drink the wine behind the label. I must admit I had low expectations, but the nose was so good that I was somewhat deflated by the taste. I’ll try some more tonight and see if it gets any better, but I doubt it. The label, however, is a home run.
Very interesting review of the Norma Jeane wine. I collect the Marilyn Merlots and have never tasted it 🙂
I am the opposite; I cellar to age some wines, but always end up drinking them 😉 I would encourage you to pick up 2 bottles of Norma Jeane; one to drink now, the other for your collection. It’s a fun wine and not too expensive.
Cheers!
Can you tell a good quality wine by stiffness of the cork? Is a soft cork the sign of a acid tasting wine? … getting too much oxygen?
Jeff,
No, the cork stiffness really is not an indicator of quality. What I look for is even color, length and that it is not dried out or crumbly. This would be a bad sign if the wine is less than 15 or 20 years old. The longer corks are more expensive and indicates that at least the winemaker thinks it’s a fine wine (or the owner is sparing no expense).
If the cork is “soft” it will probably also be falling apart, which will let too much oxygen into the bottle. Open the bottle and pour some wine out and check the color and aromas; that will tell the tale if it’s still drinkable.
Thanks for your question.