My main reason for going to NY was to pickup more Joseph Phelps Napa Valley Merlot. http://www.jpvwines.com/. Joseph Phelps wines are quickly becoming some of my favorite wines on the planet. I have tried their Insignia, Le Mistral, and their Napa Valley Merlot. The Napa Valley Merlot is the most amazing Merlot I have ever tried. I have tried the 2000 and 2002 Napa Valley Merlot and both were equally as good.
I was looking at getting some more as I was down to one lone bottle of 2002, and after visiting the Joseph Phelps website, it looks like they are no longer making the Napa Valley Merlot. The 2002 Merlot was released on Jan. 2005 and that is the last Napa Valley Merlot they have listed... there should be 2003 and a 2004 out by now but there isn't. The LCBO no Joseph Phelps Napa Valley Merlot in stock, the Lifford Wine Agency (which is the agent that handles Joseph Phelps products in Ontario shows the Merlot in their "archived" wine section, so my last shot at finding some was the Premier Group in the NY... they had the 2001 Napa Valley Merlot listed on their website so I was in business and off to NY we went.
In New York State, the Prime Wines location of the Premier Group in Kenmore was were we ended up. They had six bottles of the 2001 Joseph Phelps Napa Valley Merlot in stock ($44.99 US each) which I snapped up.
While I was there I noticed they also had the Joseph Phelps "Innisfree" Merlot on sale for $19.99, regular price was $25.99. I had never tried it but decided to take a gamble and buy a case.For dinner with the pasta we tried the 2003 Innisfree Merlot and the Napa Valley 2001 against each other.
Both were very good, though I preferred the Napa Valley, I wasn't upset at the fact that I had another 11 bottles of the Innisfree sitting down in the cellar!
They both paired very well with the Alfredo, the Fried ravioli and the Garlic Bread with Cheese. Both were OK with the Ravioli in tomato sauce. Both were not so great with salad.
If you can get a hold of either of the Joseph Phelps Merlot in your area, do so you won't be disappointed.
For dessert we had a couple of large wedges of St. Agur (a French blue cheese) and two ports - Taylor Fladgate 20 year old Tawny port and a Yalumba Antique Tawny. Both of these are like Heaven in a glass.
Funny story about the Yalumba Antique Tawny... last time we were down at the Premier Group, my wife, Kathy came across a lone bottle of this and wanted to pick it up. We argued, I didn't want to buy for two reasons - it was from Australia so we could probably get it at the LCBO and it was getting taxed in NY and then again at the border so it would probably be cheaper via the LCBO. Secondly, WTF do Australians know about making port???
In the end, the Yalumba was $17.99 for a 375mL sized bottle, so I decided to give in and it ended up in the cart.
We opened it on Father's Day as my father is a huge fan of Port and Blue Cheese. It was stunning... I liked it even better than the Taylor Fladgate 20 year old port.
I tried everything to find another bottle back in June but there was none to had.
So when I saw three bottles sitting on the shelf in Prime Wines this past Saturday I grabbed all three. We opened one of them for dessert and it was as good as I remembered it to be.
This is not the first time my wife has been right and I have been very wrong about a wine... so to quickly recap - Joseph Phelps makes great wines, especially Merlot, the Australians make a kick ass port and my wife is a wine genius who I should never question.
Cheers!
Mark
No comments:
Post a Comment