St. Francis Winery Starts Merlot Day, May 19

I think that by now, most wine lovers are familiar with the rise and fall of the merlot grape. After the movie Sideways, merlot took a huge hit when people started switching to pinot noir. While the much-maligned varietal might deserve a bit of the criticism it received, namely that the wine lacked structure and soul, the fact remains that merlot is capable of producing world class wines. This "Merlot Day" is a cool way to rediscover the grape, or get acquainted with one of the most popular varietals in the world. I'd recommend the St. Francis merlot as a good place to start, also try Stag's Leap, Whitehall Lane, or Flora Springs. If you're looking for more value-oriented merlot, Columbia Crest makes a superb example under their "Grand Estate" classification, as do Bogle and Blackstone.

Luckily, merlot can pair well with a wide variety of foods and one of my somewhat-secret pleasures is pairing merlot with a shrimp and pesto pizza. If you're into cheese pairings, try a bottle of Napa Valley merlot with Camembert and Gruyere cheeses. Alternately if you are sometimes into simple things like I am, do a bacon grilled cheese sandwich with some sharp cheddar and smokey gouda, toss in finely diced sun-dried tomatoes, on fresh sourdough, and down a glass of merlot with that. It's a quick but very delicious meal.

What's your favorite merlot? Did you (like me) shun merlot after seeing Sideways? Have any great merlot and food pairings for us?

From the press release: 
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(image via http://www.stfranciswinery.com)

St. Francis Winery Celebrates First Annual

#Merlot Day Virtual Tasting

(April 27, 2011) – St. Francis Winery & Vineyards, a Sonoma County producer of hand-crafted fruit forward varietal wines, launches their first nationwide virtual tasting featuring Merlot on Thursday, May 19, 2011.  As the first Sonoma County winery to plant and produce Merlot, their virtual tasting will salute the varietal they pioneered since their first vintage in 1983.

Wine lovers across the country can participate in St. Francis Merlot Day by signing up, free of charge, at www.stfrancismerlotday.eventbrite.com and opening a bottle of their favorite Merlot. The 24 hour tasting starts at 12:01am with participants sharing tasting notes and images of their favorite Merlot on Facebook and Twitter using the hashtag #Merlot.  Even better, participate by visiting the winery and attending the KJZY radio station Happy Hour from 5:30 to 8:00pm and meet Winemaker Tom Mackey.  An exciting new app from CrushWire technology will be available on iPads allowing participants to share their experiences online directly from the tasting room.

St. Francis’ winemaker Tom Mackey, heralded by the press as the ‘Master of Merlot’, is excited to participate and share his love for the presently underappreciated Merlot varietal, “Twitter and Facebook are easy ways for fans to share opinions about wine. The best way to communicate the taste and quality is old fashioned word of mouth – even when it’s delivered virtually on a smart phone.”

About St. Francis Winery & Vineyards:

For over 35 years, St. Francis Winery in Sonoma has hand-crafted fruit forward, luscious and full-bodied wines from superior mountain and valley vineyards in Sonoma County’s best appellations.   While most renowned for its red varietals, including its Zinfandel (all old vines 60 - 110 years old), Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, St. Francis also produces a noteworthy Chardonnay.  St. Francis Sonoma County wines are bursting with flavor and are recognized globally for outstanding quality and great value. Visit us at www.stfranciswinery.com            

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Beau Carufel

Back (again) to JAQK, I AM Drinking this $!%&'ing Merlot!

The market for premium merlot doesn't seem to be a big one, but there are some amazing examples available. Names like Selene, Leonetti, and Whitehall Lane remind us that Miles was dreadfully wrong to write off merlot. On the other hand, if you've had the supermarket-plonk merlot, it's hard to find fault in his proclamation.

Wine lovers should forever remain open-minded, especially with it comes to their tasting habits. While you or I may not like a particular varietal in one instance, perhaps trying that same varietal again but from a different producer or region will yield a differnet result. So then, the example I present is with merlot, a much-maligned grape, yet one that is found in some of the greatest wines in the world from Bordeaux to California and back.

I tasted another offering from JAQK Cellars after having previously tasted a syrah and a cabernet sauvignon from them in January. This is their Bone Dance Merlot, continuing the theme of gaming related labels. The name refers to a pair of dice bouncing across a table, since dice were traditionally made of bone. I'd urge you to check out the links to those previous reviews to get a sense of the quality that JAQK Cellars is attaining.

 

Here again I am making a conscious effort to look at hte color of the Bone Dance and compare it to other merlots I have had. There's a wall of purple in the center of my glass, opaque and solid looking. As I look towards the edges though, the wine's color lightens towards a nearly violet hue.

I waited patiently for an hour before smelling and tasting, to try to maintain some kind of systemic consistency to my reviews. The first two things I smelled were vanilla and blueberries, like a blueberry cream tarte fresh out of the oven. Both were strong, what I would call the primary aromas. Secondary aromas, those that I can discern but are more nuanced would be hints of chocolate and black currant. There is a bit of alcoholic heat that distracts, which to me is somewhat disappointing. Still the JAQK Bone Dance has a positively luxurious nose, one that showcases a lot of what can make merlot a superb wine.

The flavors surprised me, as did the structure. I was able to taste the vanilla oak and some mixed berry jam quite easily. Hiding in there were a more dark chocolate flavor and some firm tannins. Texturally the tannins weaved a nice tapestry throughout the wine, even lending some body to the finish. Unfortunately, the finish was a bit abrupt for me, I wished for something with more carry-through. Interestingly I detected a bit of a raspberry puree note right as the wine tapered off, like the kind of puree you'd get on top of a dark chocolate dessert. This pleased me, being an avowed fan of raspberries.

For a suggested retail of $25, the Bone Dance doesn't blow you out of the water but it is very well put together. Texturally interesting wine, great tannin and some wonderful aromatics. A couple of things, the alcoholic tickle on the nose and the too-abrupt finish left me wishing this wine lived up to its potential though. Still, you could do a lot worse, especially at the price point. The 2007 JAQK Cellars Bone Dance Merlot shows how good merlot can be and is a well-priced wine. I thought for a while and ended up giving the wine a B. For you points-lovers, I would give this an 84 points. Not bad wine at all, perhaps just needs some more time in bottle.

This was a media sample from the winery.

Beau Carufel