Lemon cream pasta with Prosciutto was the main course for the evening. This dish loves Merlot so for the pairing I went with a Merlot we hadn’t tried before – 2004 Clos du Val Napa Valley Merlot. We have tried a Zinfandel by Clos du Val before and it was pretty good so I looking forward to trying the Merlot.
"Proscuitto with Lemon cream pasta" The wine was aromatic with black plum, smoke, nutmeg and cassis. The cassis threw me when Mick mentioned it as that is not an aroma usually in Merlot. The bottle mentioned that 5% of the wine was actually Cabernet Sauvignon which shed light on the cassis aroma. The Merlot had very chalky tannin rather than soft tannin which I believe made it seem more tannic than it actually was. The flavour profile was coffee and cocoa which gave this wine a very mature quality to it. The lack of fruit on the flavour profile was surprising for a California Merlot and tasting this blind I would have guessed it was French and Mick said he would have guessed it to be Chilean. The same lack of fruit hurt this wine on the food pairing making at it best an OK pairing.
"The bottle says it is from California"We had a store bought brownie cheesecake for dessert and still had some of the Clos du Val left over. The coffee and cocoa flavour that didn’t work so well with the pasta was really good with the cheesecake. I was actually surprised at how damn good this wine was with the cheesecake and disappointed that I drank most of it with the pasta.
"Needs more Merlot!"Here is the group rating for the wine -Mick – 84, Mark - 85, Kathy – 85, Amy – 84, Overall – 84.5
This wine was purchased at the LCBO but has been on my rack for about a year so unfortunately it is no longer listed on the LCBO’s website. The price point on this wine was around $21-25 CDN. There are other Merlot’s in that price point like the Beringer’s Founder’s Estate Merlot or Rutherford Hill that I’d recommend over this one unless of course you are looking for a Merlot to go with brownie cheesecake!
Cheers!
Mark
This wine was purchased at the LCBO but has been on my rack for about a year so unfortunately it is no longer listed on the LCBO’s website. The price point on this wine was around $21-25 CDN. There are other Merlot’s in that price point like the Beringer’s Founder’s Estate Merlot or Rutherford Hill that I’d recommend over this one unless of course you are looking for a Merlot to go with brownie cheesecake!
Cheers!
Mark
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