New to Wines

[Innkeeper]

Tammy, if you liked the Yellow Tail Merlot, you would probably like the KJ too. I don't care for most New World merlot. By New World I mean wine made anywhere except Western Europe. The reason, may be why as a new wine drinker, you like it. It was originally used in Europe as a blending wine or in some cases as the primary grape in a blend. By itself, merlot is singularly dimensional. You get plumbs on the nose and upfront, and that's it.

Some producers add another dimension with oak. In rare cases other facts can be added to the wine by very old wines usually grown in very special places. There are a few such situations in Californa, but the wine from those sites are quite expensive, i.e. Duckhorn. There are additional sites in Europe that have been farmed for centuries. Two such are the East Bank of the Garonne in Bordeaux, and the Collio Region of Italy.

Of approximately ten cases of wine in my cellar, two bottles are merlot. Both are from Italy. One is from Collio and is aging. The other is a blend with cabernet sauvignon.