01 Oliver merlot

[winophite]

01 Oliver merlot. Produced in IN with grapes of CA; vineyard and/or region unstated on the bottle. Released for the 07 holiday season from the Oliver library. $30.00 Per bottle.
Alc. 13% by vol.

Deep dark violet in the glass, aroma jumping from my seldom used decanter of syrupy dark cherry fruit with a touch of blueberry in the background. Up front flavors of same dark fruit, leading into a caramelized sort of taste in the middle; initially, the middle held a touch of bitters that decanted into the carmelization after about an hour. The finish includes a nice acidic balance of a sweet apple lingureing for about a 2 and a ¼ lap finish. The mouth feel was only “ordinary”.

Last year Oliver released a 99 merlot that had a much different mouth feel more of velvety smoothness that I reeeaaallly enjoyed, I wonder if another year or two might reproduce that moth feel? I have a few bottles in reserve for future tasting.

I also find it interesting that the library releases skipped the 2000 vintage. Anyone know if that was a hard year for CA fruit? Well, it’s starting out to be a happy new year here, (discounting the Hoosiers poor performance in the Insight bowl last night-14 years in its coming) hoping for the same happiness for all members, all across the board. WP