2012 Merry Edwards Sauvignon Blanc - What the hell? This is a wine I’ve had in several vintages - hell, I served it at my wedding - and this was the worst bottle I’ve ever had, by a mile. An oaky, tropical, disjointed mess. I ordered this at a professional event and several folks wouldn’t even touch it. Gross. 2013 Turley White Zinfandel - I wanted to love this - I REALLY like the recent stuff coming out of Turley - but this was insipid. Dump, and pass the Beringer.
1998 La Grave a Pomerol - Mmmmmmmmm. Chocolate, red fruit, cedar. Rich and pillowy textured - fully resolved - yet with nice acid. Just delicious and quintessential Pomerol. Presumably right at peak.
I think David is on to something and I suggested the same thing in a Sav Blanc thread some months ago.
My wife and I used to love Merry Edwards, especially 09 and 10. Yes a more modern, flashy style of SB, but a major crowd-pleasure and paired well with certain dishes that scream for a Chard (if you like Chard). The 2011 vintage got slightly sweeter and lower acid, the 2012 even more with an overkill of oak. I recently popped a 2010 within a month of having a 2012, and there is a difference.
Even my wife found the 2012 too sweet, too oaky. And that’s saying volumes as she tends to migrate toward sweet wines but with acid.
Recently had a 2012 Matanzas Creek Bennett Valley Sauvignon Blanc that reminded me a lot of past vintages of Merry Edwards. At $27 a bottle I would take it over Merry Edwards anytime
Have not had this wine but just popped onto CT this morning to check a few other things and checked out the overall tasting notes from folks on the 12 Merry Edwards. The overall impression is that the wines is wonderful and relatively consistent with previous vintages.
The tropical aspects appear to be consistent with other notes - and with what I remember about the wine from previous vintages. The oak, on the other hand, could certainly be problematic - have your ‘preferences in white wines’ changed in the past year whereby you perhaps don’t prefer as much oak as before? Just curious . . .
It was just anonymous Rose; not nearly as good as the really good roses I’ve had from other top new-wave CA producers. Then again, it’s priced lower - it’s just rose for glugging. At that price point, though, there are a lot of French roses being brought in by the good importers that have way more character.