Hurricane wine. As Ivan menaced, the question some of us were asking was: Do you drink red or white during a hurricane? Most people I talked to seem to have settled on red.
     At last night's impromptu wine and cheese party, we tried the 2001 Hedges Three Vineyards, a Cab-Merlot blend from Red Mountain in Washington state. I didn't spend much time sniffing at it, since I was drinking it out of a big plastic Dixie cup. But it had a smooth dark chocolate nose and a bit of pepper in it, too. Nice oak smell, too -- pleasant, not predominant.
     While playing bourre, we also drank the 2002 Rock Rabbit Syrah [PDF]. It's a happy little fruit bomb, much like an earlier, nonvintage release of this wine that went over really well at wine club a while back.
 :: posted by Dante Ramos at 11:58 AM
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Merlot from Argentina. Lenndevours has organized the first World Wide Wine Blogging Wednesday, and the theme is New World (but non-U.S.) Merlots. So Gary and I brought one to the new Sun Ray Grill in Mid-City.
     We ended up tasting the 2002 Los Cardos Merlot, produced by Doña Paula in Argentina's Mendoza region. It costs about $8 at Martin Wine Cellar, and it does a decent job for the price.
     In fact, Gary was quite fond of it. He thought it was smooth and chock full of berry fruit. For him it was most remarkable for what it wasn't: not oaky, not charcoaly, not overly sweet, and not much like other South American Merlots we've tried over the years. He gave it a 17 out of 20.
     I liked this wine OK, if not as much as he did. It smelled clean. The dominant note was like a cross between raisins and grape Kool-Aid, but it was also a little chocolatey. When you first sip it, it's a fruit bomb. Then it turns pretty tannic. I was thinking it was a little generic, but it got more interesting at the end when some herby greenness kicked in. I'd give it maybe 12.5 out of 20.
     We probably should have aired this wine out more than we did. And we didn't go out of our way to match our food to it. Still, Gary said it went OK with his sesame tuna. The wine felt a bit heavy for my amberjack, though not by much -- the fish was spiced with various chile peppers and came with black beans on the side. I can think of a dry Syrah rosé that would have been perfect.
     But for eight bucks, we could have done far worse.

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Here's what the winemaker says:

Deep red violet coloured wine, with aromas reminiscent of ripe red fruit and spicy herbaceous notes. In the palate is Fresh, elegant, fruity and well-balanced by soft tannins and good acidity. Fruity aftertaste.

Not exactly what we found, but not far off, either.
 :: posted by Dante Ramos at 12:02 AM
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