1999 Dry Creek V. Merlot

[jackl]

I guess what I was getting at was that it seems like most of the New World wine regions (especially California, Australia) tend to be warmer climates and therefore give riper fruit. I am sure this a bit simplistic but seems to be generally true. Maybe this is because without such a long tradition of matching grapes with specific locales as in Europe, it is just easier to pick a warmer climate where the grapes will more often than not get ripe. Would others agree that places like California and Australia (among the other NW regions) are still trying to figure out these sorts of grape/place combos. Just let me know if I'm overanalyzing this whole subject (which I have been known to do).