Wine Blogging Wednesday #48 – Back to your roots! – Happy 4th B-day!!

This Wednesday WBW celebrates its 4^th birthday and befittingly the founder of WBW (Lenn Thompson) has selected the topic for this month, Back to your roots. For #48 Lenn wanted us take a trip down memory lane and find the wine that started our journey into the wine world, re-taste it and of course right about it, then and now.

 

I had a hard time with this one, first because I forgot about it (not the first time) and second because I really can’t pinpoint my “Ah Ha” moment with wine to a single bottle.  So I veered off topic slightly here, but my magic bottle is more like a magic experience.  I had heard of this magic thing called “wine tasting”, where you could visit a winery, taste their wines, talk about them with the winemaker perhaps and see exactly where the grapes came from that provided the juice for your glass of wine.  I was in disbelief but soon found out that this was in actuality happening all over the state and all over the world. So with my in-laws and my wife we proceeded West to the Monticello region of Virginia to partake in some wine tasting.

 

On that day we visited one of the largest and probably the most celebrated winery in Virginia, Barboursville Vineyards. It opened my eyes completely to the scene of “wine enthusing” and I have been hooked ever since.  An addict for information, I was amazed at all that I could learn about who, what, when and where when it came to what I was drinking.

 

So at the time I didn’t take notes, so I don’t have anything to compare notes to, but I did drink a Merlot while I was there, and I luckily happened to have a bottle in my cellar from a visit a few months ago. If I did have notes, I am sure they would have been something like this: “um, it’s red, tastes pretty good, I like it” or something to that effect. Haha

 

My notes on the current 2006 Barboursville Merlot

Color – Garnet

Nose – Blackberry, cherry, vanilla, leather, tomato paste

Taste – Blueberry, cherry cola, kale, black peppercorn

Mouthfeel – medium body, decent amount of acidity, smooth tannins

Finish – Medium to long in length with thyme and cherry tomato and clove flavors lingering on the palate 

This was a great Merlot in a world that has been harsh to the varietal lately.  Barboursville produces a very approachable version, that is definitely ready to drink now but could hang around for a few more years if you can resist temptation.  Fruit forward but not in your face, with good vegetal and herb notes providing complexity and depth not often found in a Merlot costing $14.99 from Virginia.

 

So Happy Birthday WBW!!

 

Cheers!