It seems like it has been forever since just the four of us had a normal Saturday night dinner together so it was nice to get back to normal. Mick and Amy were hosting the evening and Mick had couple of new dishes on tap for the night.
The first course was hickory smoked chicken wings with a 2003 Beringer’s ‘Napa Valley’ Merlot.
The nose on the Merlot was busy with plum, nutmeg, cocoa, black pepper, eucalyptus and cedar. Tasting the wine, you’ll find a blueberry and chocolate flavour to the wine. The structure on the wine was lovely with silky tannins, soft fruit and decent acidity. This was a very easy drinking Merlot. My one concern with it was the fruit was fading and if you have any bottles of this in your cellar, I’d suggest drinking it now as in a year or so this wine will be well past its prime. The pairing of the smoked wings and the Merlot was very complimentary to each other. I enjoyed how the Merlot supercharged the smokiness of the wings.
Here is the group rating for the wine -Mick – 89, Mark - 89, Kathy – 89, Amy – 88, Overall – 88.75
I joked about Amy’s rating being an 88… it would have been a 89 but it wasn’t a Riesling so she took a point off! :)
The LCBO didn’t have a listing for Beringer’s ‘Napa Valley’ Merlot. When they do have it in stock it usually ranges between $27-34 a bottle. Mick mentioned to me that he bought this in the US years ago for $17.
The Merlot/wing combination was excellent and I enjoyed the wings. I won’t say these are the best wings Mick has ever made, as he has done so many amazing types of chicken wings over the years that he has set the bar pretty damn high, but these were very good.
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