Merlot Blind Tasting

WINE TALK
1

Our East Bay group began 8 years ago and we meet once a month. I don’t know why many here with wine tasting groups don’t post their tasting results. Perhaps because the 6 of us aren’t as serious as some posters here with their 100 point scoring - we rate the one we like best 1pt and the one we like least 6pts.

Merlot Tasting over $25 and currently available.

All of these wines started out tasting very good. A couple ended up not tasting as good after a while in comparison to the others.

  1. 2012 Otis Kenyon Walla Walla Valley $35 - 31pts - 3 lasts - tastes of coffee and a little bitterness. Surprising because I usually find WA merlots to taste better than the ones from CA.

  2. 2015 Sebastiani Alexander Valley $26 - 30pts - 2 lasts - lighter and drier than the others.

3/4. 2013 Silverado Mt. George Vineyard Coombsville $45 - 17pts - 1 first (exact same scores as the next one) - fruity, I liked it better at first.

3/4. 2013 John Robert Eppler Napa $33 - 17pts - 1 first - nice berry fruit (my #2).

  1. 2014 Emmolo Napa $40/liter bottle (we poured it into a 750ml bottle for the tasting) - 16pts - 3 firsts, 1 last (my #1) - velvety, chocolate and cherry flavors with a nice balance. This would have won except for the taster who rated it last, who said while he liked it, it didn’t taste like a merlot to him.

  2. 2014 Reynolds Stag Leap $48 - 15pts - 1 first (my #3) - I thought it was pretty good but nothing special.

When you look at the scores, the top two or even four are pretty good, but the Emmolo stands out for the price (even if it doesn’t taste like merlot) :slight_smile:

2

I don’t know why many here with wine tasting groups don’t post their tasting results.

For me it was because nobody else in the groups participated on any boards so what would it matter to find a score from an unknown person, and also because they had different opinions (some having been in the business much longer than others with definite tastes), and lastly because I just don’t post a lot of TNs anyway.

But I think you’re totally on the right track the way you did your tasting. I find the Emmolo pretty ghastly stuff, but everyone has different tastes. Good tasting! [cheers.gif]

3

But I’d like to encourage more people to post their group’s results.

Of course different people have different tastes and experience but the point totals usually average most of that out. And since I’m the one to post it, I can add my own notes to it.

I think blind tasting with 6 wines side by side can skew your opinions of the wines, comparing them to each other.

You didn’t like the Emmolo - neither did the taster in our group who rated it #6.

It’s a great way to be introduced to new wines.