Saturday Night – A Casual Dinner for Five – Part 2

For the main course, Amy had requested lemon cream prosciutto pasta and I paired it with a 2005 Clos du Val Napa Valley Merlot.

The nose on the wine was easy to find as it had big aromas of earth, tar and tomato soup.  Tasting the wine, the main flavour was cocoa with some blackberry floating around in the background.  The wine had a very thin mouth-feel to it as the tannin was very soft.  This was not your typical fruit forward California Merlot and reminded more of something you would get from the right bank of Bordeaux.  It was a good match for the pasta as it picked up the mint and cayenne pepper in the dish.

Here is the group rating for the wine –Mick* – 86, Mark – 88, Kathy – 88, Amy – 83, Overall – 87.

The LCBO isn’t listing the Merlot so I have included the listing for the Clos du Val Zinfandel instead as I seem to remember the Merlot being in the same price point.

CLOS DU VAL  ZINFANDEL 2009

VINTAGES 590216
750 mL bottle
Price: $ 23.95
Made in: California, USA
By: Clos Du Val Wine Company Ltd.,
Release Date: Feb 18, 2012
Wine, Red Wine
13.9% Alcohol/Vol.
Varietal: Zinfandel
Sweetness Descriptor: D - Dry

Tasting Note - Aromas of blackberry, sweet blueberry, strawberry, smoke and touches of earth make for a very interesting and engaging nose. Dry and fairly full bodied, the palate is well structured with nicely balanced tannins and acidity and a lively mid-palate. More good fruit, including blackberry and strawberry with spice, smoke and herbs and a very flavourful and lengthy finish. (VINTAGES panel, May 2011)

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