Happy New Year one and all. Merlot be da grape, JP's be da place. Thursday at 6:30. I have a New Year's resolution for one and all. Let someone know if you'll be joining us on Thursday. Bob's machine 612 672 0607 or the list: wine(a)thebarn.com or me: James(a)BrewingNews.com (e-mail doesn't care about upper case) Been a while since we've been to JPs. Merlot tastings have been particularily good. I suppose it's easier to find the nuggets when looking in a shallow pool. Date: Wed, 7 Jun 2006 11:00:22 -0500 From: "Jim L. Ellingson" <jellings(a)me.umn.edu> To: wine(a)thebarn.com Greetings, PLEASE let someone know that you're planning on attending. Call Bob (612-672-0607), e-mail the list (wine(a)thebarn.com) or reply to me. A big thanks to those of us who made their intentions known. Merlot based wines from anywhere at JP's Bistro on Thursday, 6:30. Guesses all around. Bob Betsy Annette Lori Ruth Jim/Louise Bill/Linda Joyce Russ/Sue Bill Nicolai/Karin JP's American Bistro 2937 S. Lyndale 55408 (612) 824-9300 Cheers, Jim December 13, 2006 Wines of The Times With Such Enemies, Does Merlot Need Friends? By ERIC ASIMOV WHAT.S the best thing to happen to merlot in the last few years? Why, .Sideways,. the movie that so roundly trashed merlot while genuflecting before the new god of red wine, pinot noir. The movie gave shape to an inchoate movement away from American merlot in the marketplace, and spoke the truth in caustic terms: namely that most merlot produced in the United States is not very good. As a result, the anti-merlot trend accelerated. Fewer people bought it, and producers bottled less of it. But if the net outcome is that people have simply traded in bad merlot for a growing sea of bad pinot noir, that.s not such a good thing. On the other hand, if the merlot retreat causes growers and producers to reassess what they were doing and to start making better wines at all levels, I call that an excellent thing. Still, that could take years as producers, if they are wed to making merlot at all, reconsider where best to plant the grapes and what styles of wine to make. And let.s be clear: not all American merlot is bad merlot. Yes, California does produce some good merlot, though I could make a case that better merlot is coming from Long Island than from California, albeit in very small amounts. But the No. 1 source right now for good American merlot is Washington State. The best Washington merlots reveal a structure and earthiness that you rarely see in the typically plusher, softer California versions. They are not huge fruit bombs or oak monsters by any means, but surprisingly balanced, smaller-scale wines that belong on the dinner table. That was the prevailing view, at least, of the Dining section.s wine panel in a recent tasting of 25 Washington State merlots. For the tasting, Florence Fabricant and I were joined by David Gordon, wine director of Nobu and Tribeca Grill, and Jill Roberts, a wine consultant. We were all surprised by how much we liked the best of these merlots. We were not expecting wines so well balanced and integrated. They weren.t soft and opulent, nor were they particularly high in alcohol . or at least they didn.t seem to be. Our Top 10 were mostly in the range of 13.5 to 14.5 percent, which nowadays is rather tame. Our favorite was the 2003 Pedestal from Long Shadows, a wine that was a complete package: structured, harmonious and complex. Long Shadows has an interesting story. Its owner, Allen Shoup, is a retired corporate wine executive who has attracted leading winemakers from around the world to Washington each year to apply their expertise to the grapes there. Among the participants are Randy Dunn of Dunn Vineyards in the Napa Valley, Armin Diel of Schlossgut Diel in the Nahe region of Germany, and Michel Rolland, the acclaimed and controversial globetrotting consultant from Pomerol, who makes Pedestal. While the wine contains the lavish fruit that is a Rolland signature, it is balanced by earth and spice flavors that raise Pedestal above clichéUnfortunately, I am told, the 2003 Pedestal has become hard to find. But fear not: the 2004 will be released in February. Similarly, the 2003 Januik from the Columbia Valley is full of ripe fruit, but spice and mineral flavors lend complexity. The wine is beautifully balanced. Best of all, at $27, the Januik was our best value. Our No. 3 wine, the 2003 Owen Roe from DuBrul Vineyard in the Yakima Valley, was similar to the Januik: it was rich and ripe, but the forceful fruit was balanced by floral and herbal flavors that gave it depth. Owen Roe wines seem to stand out whenever we taste Washington wines. It.s a label worth seeking out. A notch below were the tannic 2003 Woodward Canyon from the Columbia Valley and the elegant 2000 Andrew Will Klipsun. It is interesting that, except for the Andrew Will, our top wines were all from the 2003 vintage, a very good year but not appreciably better than the vintages of the previous six or seven years. It.s an indication, perhaps, that Washington merlots are best enjoyed young, when still vibrant. This was borne out by the one older wine in the tasting, a 1995 Leonetti Columbia Valley, which, at $130, was far more costly than the next most expensive wines, the Pedestal and the Andrew Will, both $60. In this blind tasting the panel was a little puzzled by the Leonetti. To me, it tasted of a different era, when grapes were typically harvested earlier than is fashionable today. It had a sour-cherry tartness that I found refreshing, more typical of a Bordeaux than a New World merlot. Still, it did not make our Top 10, and we were not able to find more current bottles from Leonetti or Quilceda Creek, producers of two of Washington.s most coveted merlots. The other wines in our Top 10 were all pleasing, but each lacked a particular quality . complexity, focus or balance . that might have pushed it higher in the rankings. According to the Washington Wine Commission, the acreage devoted to merlot grapes in the state continues to climb, and although the rate of increase has slowed it does not appear that a .Sideways. effect has deterred the state.s winemakers from continuing to produce merlot. Still, with 6,222 total acres of merlot this year, Washington produces a pittance compared with California, which has more than 50,000 acres planted with merlot. You might think that if Washington can make merlot this good, it ought to make more of it. On the other hand, it could be that care in management and restraint in growth are exactly what.s needed to maintain quality. Long Shadows Columbia Valley Pedestal 2003 $60 *** Well-structured, with complex flavors of fruit, earth, spice and cocoa. BEST VALUE Januik Columbia Valley 2003 $27 *** Rich aromas of ripe fruit; well balanced, with lingering cherry, spice and mineral flavors. Owen Roe Yakima Valley DuBrul Vineyard 2003 $50 *** Ripe, complex and well balanced, with cherry, floral and herbal flavors. Woodward Canyon Columbia Valley 2003 $29 **½ Tannic yet juicy, with flavors of plums, cherries and chocolate. Andrew Will Klipsun 2000 $60 **½ Graceful and elegant, with blackberry, licorice and floral flavors. Ash Hollow Walla Walla Valley 2003 $28 ** Plush and juicy, with rich, ripe fruit; pleasing but unfocused. Townshend Columbia Valley 2000 $33 ** Lots of fruit, with a velvety texture. L.Ecole No. 41 Columbia Valley 2002 $32 ** Light tannins, with fruit and mineral flavors; slightly unbalanced. Canoe Ridge Columbia Valley 2002 $20 ** Juicy and pleasant, but a little rustic. Chateau Ste. Michelle Columbia Valley 2002 $15 ** Soft, small-scale and slightly sweet; balanced fruit and mineral flavors. ----- End forwarded message ----- -- ------------------------------ * * Dr. James Lee Ellingson, Adjunct Professor jellings(a)me.umn.edu * * University of Minnesota, tel: 651/645-0753 fax 651 XXX XXXX * * Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *