http://zippysauce.blogspot.com/2011/10/saturday-night-just-four-of-us-part-1.html which was really good but the fruit was fading on it big time, I thought it would a good idea to use my bottle of it up. A few years back I went on a Merlot binge and still have a number of 2001-2004 Merlots that I need to drink soon. I decided to make the evening’s theme ‘Foods that pair well with Merlot’. The first course was an Anti-Pasto and the main course was Lemon Cream Prosciutto Pasta.
Since I was making a couple of dishes that went well with Merlot, I decided we needed a couple of Merlots to go with these dishes so I found a friend to go with Beringer’s – a 2003 Kendall Jackson Grand Reserve Merlot. This would be a nice comparison as both are in that $27-34 price range, both are from California, both are from well-known wineries and both were from 2003 and needed to be drank.
As we reviewed the Beringer’s last week, this Blog will just focus on the KJ Grand Reserve.
The nose on the KJ was very aromatic with plum, allspice, coffee and dark chocolate. What was very cool/freaky is after about 20 minutes the nose on this wine changed dramatically and most of the earlier aromas disappeared and were replaced by a maple/vanilla fudge aroma. Tasting the wine that plum aroma carried over as it was also the main flavour to this wine. As much as loved the nose on the wine, it lost me a bit upon tasting it as it was overly acidic and you got a coffee like bitterness in a mid-palate that I wasn’t a big fan of. The wine got much better with the meat and cheese of the Anti-Pasto as the acidity and bitterness seemed to be neutralized with the food.
Here is the group rating for the wine -Mick – 87, Mark - 87, Kathy – 86, Amy – 86, Overall – 86.5
There was no LCBO information on this wine as it was purchased years ago but it was in that $27-34 price range.
The KJ and the Beringer’s Merlots were long gone by the time we hit the main course so I cracked a bottle of 2001 Joseph Phelps ‘Napa Valley’ Merlot. I have reviewed this wine before so I won’t go into much detail but I will say I found the Phelps Merlot the best of the three by a wide margin.
For dessert I risked life and limb by going with a non-chocolate dessert as our local supermarket was carrying a couple of desserts from LaRocca’s Fall line. I went with a Salted Caramel Apple Flan as it was something we never had before. I really liked it as it was something different. The Flan was sweet but not overly so and I opened a bottle of 2005 Botrytis Affect Late Harvest Riesling to go with it. This too has been reviewed (see top five dessert, sparkling and port wine to your right) before so I won’t go into detail but I will say it and the Flan were a great pairing.
Three bottles of Merlot and a bottle of dessert wine for four people certainly means we had a good time (which made Sunday a touch rough). As I have more Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon that is getting past their primes, we will be having a few more of these types of nights before the end of the year and I can’t say I’m sorry about that.
Cheers!
Mark
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