Saturday Night – It’s now Merlot Night

Mick and Amy were hosting this past Saturday night dinner.  Mick had one new dish and two old favourites on tap and a new wine for us to try.  He originally had a 2011 Eidosela Albarino on tap for us but the bottle was spoiled.  As he didn’t have another suitable white chilled and ready to go, we went with a 2012 Irony Napa Valley Merlot.

 

The first course was grilled stuff peppers and the second course was grilled prosciutto wrapped shrimp with a pear and cranberry chutney. With both courses we had the Irony Merlot.

The nose on the Merlot was big and easy to find with rich aromas of pumpkin pie, cocoa, plum, eucalyptus and green pepper notes.  Tasting the wine, dark raspberry and chocolate were the dominate flavours with a touch of white pepper lurking in the background.  The structure on the wine was a nice balance between acidity and tannin but I would have liked a bit more fruit.  The finish was short and didn’t linger.  The mouth-feel was interesting as it was big but in a slightly syrupy way; kind of an “Amarone light” type of way.  It was a very good pairing with the stuffed peppers and decent pairing with the shrimp which was impressive as I thought the sweetness of the chutney would throw it but it handled that with no problems.

Here is the group rating for the wine - Mick – 88, Mark – 89, Kathy – 88, Amy – 89, Overall – 88.5.

Here is the LCBO information on the wine –

Irony Merlot
VINTAGES#: 183186
Price: $19.95
Release Date: April 18, 2014
750 mL bottle
Alcohol/Vol14.5%
Made in:California, USA
By: Delicato Vineyards
Sugar Content:7 g/L
Sweetness Descriptor: D – Dry
Style: Full-bodied & Smooth
Varietal: Merlot

For $20 this wine was a good value and there still is some stock around, so if you are looking for a nicely crafted Merlot that is very food friendly, I would suggest you pick up a bottle or two.

 

The main course was grilled chicken quesadillas with sour cream and corn salsa.  Mick paired this with a 2010 Seghesio Zinfandel which we have reviewed before so I won’t go into much detail other than to say it was a great pairing with the food. 

 

For dessert, Amy picked up a Baker’s Street milk chocolate brown sugar cake which was quite good and a nice change of pace from our usual selections of dessert.

 

It was good night with great food and wine and even better company.  Thanks to Mick and Amy for hosting and to Mick for all his hard work making those wonderful courses.

 

Cheers!

 

Mark