Last night I was really in the mood to try a special wine. We had friends coming over for dinner but I didn’t have time to go grocery shopping. I was trying to imagine what I could create from the scarce ingredients in my fridge while taking the bus home from my lessons. It was actually pretty fun! Well, I decided to use the only vegetable in my house, which was cauliflower, to make a pasta. Then my twitter friend and sommelier, Luigi Fracchia suggested pairing cauliflower with an “orange wine”. Sounded like a great idea…problem is, our local wine shop didn’t have any:(
So I scratched those plans, went back to our old favorites of homemade salami, caprese and made a 4 cheese pasta with what we had. I’ve been wanting to try the only bottle I brought back from Napa, a Twomey 2006 Merlot. I have strayed away from Merlot as it was my college choice of wine. However, one of my best childhood friends, Derek gave me this bottle with pride (his mom works there). He told me it would be really good, and as always with wines, if it has an additional sentimental value, it will be appreciated no matter what. As I think Merlot can be good with almost any pasta, last night was the perfect occasion to open it up and reminisce a little about our trip home.
For fun, I got out my aroma wheel and started comparing notes with our friends. We initially got a blackberry and blueberry nose which slowly became more and more spicy with each sniff. Luckily one of our friends smokes tobacco, so I just stuck my nose right into that and compared it to the wine. I definitely got a hint of tobacco on the nose. So cool! It was a medium to full-bodied wine with a smooth finish. I loved this merlot because it had the right amount of tannins and was not at all too “fruity”! It got a thumbs up from the whole table. Thanks Derek!
Good Choice!
I'm glad to see you're spreading the word that Merlot is not an inferior varietal when made properly. Check out this link to learn more about the wine making process: http://www.twomeycellars.com/videos/index