Collavini Merlot

[Innkeeper]

Sorry about the extra "P." Red wine basically comes in two kinds of bottles; the high shoulder Bordeaux type and the slope shoulder Burgundy type. The high shoulder is so designed to catch sediment as you decant it. Sediment usually is a byproduct of aging. Not all Bordeaux needs to be aged, and not all Burgundy is ready to go on release.

Most other red wine in the world comes in one of those shapes. As a GENERAL rule of thumb red wine that needs to aged comes in a high shoulder bottle, and ready to consume reds come in slope shoulder bottles. When a wine such as merlot normally comes in a high shoulder bottle, arrives in a sloped shoulder one; an educated guess (knowing nothing else about the wine) is that it is ready to go.

This turned out to be true in this case. Most Collio Merlots, like those from other regions, come in high shoulder bottles; and require at least a little aging.