Wannabe Wino

Disclaimer: I received this wine as a sample from Israeli Wine Direct.

Tonight I pulled out a bottle of 2006 Flam Classico from Israel that I received as a sample from Israeli Wine Direct. The wine is a blend of 80% Cabernet Sauvignon and 20% Merlot. It has a real cork closure, clocks in at 14.5% alcohol by volume, and can be purchased from Israeli Wine Direct for $24.99.

I will be the first to admit that this was not an inspired match. I served tacos for dinner, topped with sharp cheddar cheese and fresh tomatoes from my garden. So I would guess it's probably a good thing that this wine actually needed a ton of time to open up, and I didn't have to experience what I knew in my head was going to be a not very good food and wine pairing. I would certainly suggest opening this wine at least 2 hours before you intend to serve it and probably decanting it as well.


My first thought on sniffing this wine was funky. After two hours, it was still there, but it's not a bad thing, it's the funky nose I associate with Cabernet Sauvignon and a long time ago, it was something that put me off from red wines, I didn't understand that Cabernet Sauvignon was supposed to (or could) smell that way. The nose was eucalyptus, horsey, tack room, earthy, leathery funk. It smelled like Vick's Vapor Rub, mint, band aid, dark fruit, berries, cherries, spice, and pine tree. It's the nose that I now really love about a Cabernet Sauvignon.

In the mouth I found cherries, plums, big juicy berries, oak, vanilla, pine tree, bitter chocolate/coffee (sometimes I have trouble distinguishing the two in wine), and black cherries. The plums stood out more than anything else in the mouth for me. Overall, the wine had a very firm structure and plenty of tannins to spare. Serve it with a big juicy steak!

*Disclaimer: I received this wine as a sample because I am a member of WineQ's Beta Club.

The wine for the evening was a 2004 Deerfield Ranch Merlot Cuvee. It's a blend of 75% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% Sangiovese, 5% Malbec, and 3% Cabernet Franc. Being 75% Merlot, the wine qualifies to be labeled as a single varietal Merlot, however, Deerfield has chosen to call it a Cuvee instead. I admit to being confused, but upon reading the label, the winery says it wanted to emphasize the blended nature of the wine rather than it being just a regular old Merlot. The wine had a real cork closure, clocked in at 14.2% alcohol, and is available for $26.49 from WineQ.

On the nose I found chocolate, anise, plum, spice, oak, flowers, and red berries. A very nice and captivating nose. In the mouth I got flavors of plums, berries, milk chocolate, anise, and strawberry. Overall the wine was smooth and rounded with a full mouthfeel.


I served the wine with grilled cheeseburgers admist the tomato plant forest in our backyard. We've been taking advantage of the gorgeous weather we've been having and eating outside these last few days. The wine was very food friendly with nice acid and a good backbone. It went really well with our hamburgers and baked potatoes.

I unabashedly love a good California Merlot. The problem is, it's often hard to find a good one given Merlot's bad rap and tendency towards flabby overoaked plonk. So when I find a good one I feel like shouting from the rooftops. This is one such Merlot.

The bottle was a 2003 Raymond Reserve Merlot from Napa. It clocked in at 14.3% alcohol by volume, had a real cork closure, and was a gift from my Dad. My first thought on the wine was that it needed time to air, but after that it opened up into a really beautiful bottle of wine.

On the nose I found plum, blackberries, black pepper, chocolate, red cherry, and raspberries. It was a gorgeous combination of red and black fruit topped with chocolate. In the mouth I got more red fruit, cherries, raspberries, and then some plums and blackberries. The cherry was quite tart, like a fresh cherry pie.

The wine had plenty of structure and backbone to spare, I could easily see it holding up for many more years if you want to stash it away. It's a wonderful wine, especially at a price of what looks to be around $20.

The wine for the night was a 2005 "La Colombaia" Valpolicella Ripasso. I'm scratching my head to figure out where this one came from. Apparently I paid $18.99 for it, which leads me to believe that perhaps it came from the Winery in Old Town Alexandria. It had a real cork closure, clocked in at 14% alcohol by volume, hails from Italy, and is made from Merlot.

The nose of the wine showed raisins, currants, spices, plums, earth, and cherries. In the mouth I found tart cherries, raisins, earth, and spice. After a little while a touch of plum showed through. The wine continued to open up in the glass, showing a lot of depth. This was an easy drinking wine, very yum, and incredibly food friendly. A quick search reveals you can find it online for about $15.99.

Our host for this edition of WBW, the brain-child of Lenn of Lenndevous, is Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV. He chose French Cabernet Franc as theme for this month (ostensibly as a result of his recent trip tasting in France!). You can watch his vlog about the event here, but the jist is pick a French Cabernet Franc and post your link by April 2, 2008 in the comments to the entry on his website.

I'll admit straight up that I sorta cheated on this one. Having been in travel mode since before Gary's theme announcement, I really didn't have much of a chance to pick up a bottle for this month or shop around. I popped into my favorite local shop, The Winery in Old Town Alexandria, and sadly could not come up with a full on Cabernet Franc. So I went with a 25% Cabernet Franc, 70% Merlot, and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon Bordeaux style blend.

The wine is a 2004 Chateau Quercy Saint-Emilion Grand Cru. It clocked in at 13% alcohol by volume, had a real cork closure, and cost me $25.99. This is out of the price range I'm usually willing to spend on unknown wines, but the shop owner highly recommended it, and desperate times call for desperate measures.

On the nose of the wine I found cocoa powder, espresso, strawberry, herbs, and an overall smoky quality. In the mouth the fruit was dusty and smoky. I almost felt like I was drinking cedar grilled cherries and strawberries, but with fresh raspberries and a slightly biting herb bouquet dipped in espresso.

The wine was tannic on the first night, but smoothed considerably on the second. On the second night the wine took on an even smokier quality with more oak and cedar coming through, and the fruit being less dusty or smoky. I believe this one has quite a few years of age left on it.

Many thanks to Gary for hosting WBW this month. I'll be particularly interested to see what form the round-up will take! And as always, barring another other internetless interludes, I will let you know when the round-up is posted and when the May WBW theme is announced!

AKA-Live in Sonoma County! Our bed and breakfast (at least the one we are in tonight) has free wireless so I am able to keep blogging for you while we are away!

The wine for the evening was the 2003 Lava Cap 2003 Reserve Merlot from El Dorado. It clocked in at 15.1% alcohol by volume, had a real cork closure, and cost us $19.99 from WineQ (free shipping!).

On the nose I found berries, plums, spices, dark fruit, currants, and chocolate. In the mouth, more berries, currants, and plums. The wine was fruity with a bit of a darker earthy undertone, and still had a bit of a tannic edge.

I thought this was a really fun, fruity Merlot, and another great effort from Lava Cap. For this price, I would definitely get this again and consider it as a staple for serving with pizza or tomato based pasta dishes.

One evening at my parents' house, a lot of wine was consumed in one evening. We had around 10 people at the house and the wine was flowing all evening.

I believe this was the second bottle of the evening. We started with a Sauvignon Blanc, but my Aunt didn't like it and requested a Merlot. I just happened to have a Merlot blend on hand!

The wine was a Chateau Rocher Corbin 2002 Montagne Saint Emillion. I purchased it for $18.99 minus a 10% case discount at The Winery in Old Town Alexandria, it had a real cork closure, and clocked in at 13.5% alcohol by volume. The wine was a blend of 80% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc, and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon.

On the nose I found dark fruit, blackberries, oak, and black currants. In the mouth the flavors were of black currants, plums, and other dark fruit. The wine was tannic and a bit chewy in the mouth, this was definitely a wine that would benefit from being consumed with food. We finished the bottle up over a roast turkey and all the fixings, but I think it would be better with a pork roast.

Village Winery in VA, that is. I picked this bottle up at Village Winery on our tour this summer, it cost $17, clocked in at 12% alcohol by volume, had a fake cork, and I believe it is NV, or at least I can't find any vintage info on the bottle.

On the nose I found spice, smoke, leather, and raspberries. Oddly enough, I also smelled what I can only describe as fireworks after you've shot them off. In the mouth the wine was fruit, light and pleasant, showing raspberries and a bitter chocolate essence. Overall, a little tannic and a little too sweet to go with the pasta and fresh tomato sauce.

Egads, the world must be coming to an end! Now, as strange as a White Merlot, and one from Switzerland at that, sounds, the wine geek in me could not pass up this bottle of wine. I saw it on the menu and went, huh, White Merlot? Now that's a new one. And to me it is, I had never heard of such a thing.

We ventured to Il Porto Ristorante with my inlaws last week in Old Town, Alexandria. We haven't really had the time (or money) to check out many restaurants in our 'hood yet, but we were in the mood for Italian and they had open tables when we wanted, so off we went. And not a bad choice at all! The food was very tasty and reasonably priced, I had the fettucini alfredo. I know, a heart attack on a plate, yada yada yada, but I really don't care, I love the stuff and only get it perhaps twice a year.

The wine was a Ticino Chiar di Luna 2005 Bianco di Merlot. It is from V&D Angelo Delea SA, Losone-Swizzera. I gathered from the label that it is from the Italian Alps region of Switzerland. I had heard that wine was made in Switzerland, but that it was so little they didn't really export. So color me surprised to find this on the wine list of a tiny Italian restaurant in Northern Virginia.

The wine was 12% alcohol by volume and had a real cork closure. The nose was reserved, showing a slight sweet floral aroma. In the mouth the wine was light and fruity with tropical fruits. It was pleasant and tasty and otherwise hard to describe. The wine was easy to drink and made me think of fruit drinks with ice on the porch. I'd say it'd be a decent valued at the $10-$15 price point and certainly worth trying as an oddity. White Merlot???

This wine needs to come with a warning: decant before attempting to drink or risk lighting yourself on fire with the fumes. The wine itself is a 2002 Mazzocco Merlot.

Weighing in at 15% alcohol by volume, the bottle had a real cork and cost us $25 at the winery. (One of our purchases on our recent trip.)

After the alcohol blew off the nose (really, trust me on this one, decant) strawberries showed through. Then, and I realize this will sound incredibly odd, chocolate leather. Neither simply chocolate or leather, it was honestly a combination. In the mouth there were more strawberries and the wine was earthy overall.

I would describe this as a big wine. Big flavors, big alcohol, big aroma. The wine was the darkest wine I think I have ever seen. Not a ray of light was getting through this deep purple wine. The wine was also very tannic, it could certainly age for quite a while longer and I think it would develop into an incredible wine in another 3-5 years. It took several hours for the flavors to smooth out.

I served this with bbq pork chops, parmesean cous cous, and white corn on the cob. It was an excellent match for the bbq and I would definite suggest a bbq pairing for this one!

As usual, we flew JetBlue out to Long Beach as it allows us a direct flight here from the DC area. Plus, there's tons (relatively speaking in terms of planes) of leg room which is always great when you have a 6'5" husband who gets cranky all cramped into an airplane seat. Though this time we were oh so fortunate to be on the same flight at a group of approximately 60 giggling, screeching 7th and 8th graders. Boy was that ever fun. Needless to say, I was quite pleased to see that JetBlue is now serving wine on it's flights!

JetBlue has teamed with Best Cellars (who, if you look back a few posts, hosted a very nice tasting we attended recently) to offer a white and a red wine on flights. The wines chosen are both from Three Blind Moose, which, despite it's critter label, actually got a chuckle from me based on the play off the old nursery rhyme. They offer a Chardonnay and a Merlot in 187 mL bottles with screwcaps for only $5. I was very pleased with the value.

I chose the Merlot, which came in at 13.5 % alcohol by volume. The nose was huge and fruity. I almost thought it could have been regular old juice from the aroma. But really, it just smelled like absolutely fresh fruit. Blackberries, blueberries and plums, with hints of chocolate. In the mouth there were raspberries, plums and just a bit of an earthy taste. Overall it was very light-bodied and easy to drink. This was a simple wine, but for $5 on a long plane ride, I was completely surprised to find anything quaffable at all. Go JetBlue!

Matt's had a touch of a headache all day from the wine we drank on Saturday. Sometimes red wine does that. However, so that I could have something to blog about today I sacrificed myself and forced myself to drink some wine tonight ;)

Tonight's choice? A 2004 Roshambo Rock Paper Scissors Merlot. Strawberries and cherries on the nose. In general, it doesn't do much for me. The taste is bitter and tannic. And it dries out my tongue. I'm pretty sure this bottle came in our club shipment. Which kind of sucks cause that means I paid a lot to ship it across the country. It ran us $8.00 with the discount. 14.1% alcohol by volume, screw-cap closure. Not terrible, but I wouldn't seek it out.