I’m trying out a few new things here, as a milestone approaches.1 What milestone? A question best answered tomorrow, but in the meantime I have a supermarket merlot to tell you about.
This is the fourth in a series of four wines I received from a PR firm on behalf of TRE Cellars. The first three were a mixed bag, with the cab and syrah finding no sanctuary here, but the chardonnay surprising me quite a bit by being downright good. And now we come to the end.
And now we come to the merlot.
Do I have to go into it? Do I have to describe my general feelings about merlot? Must I quote Sideways for the like thousandth time? Well, to be honest—no, no I don’t. Why?
Because this stuff is pretty good.
Will it blow you away? No. If you really can’t stand merlot, will you love this? No. But if instead of having a verifiable hate for the grape, you simply don’t come across many merlots that are all that yummy these days, this might be one for you to try. And at approximately a Hamilton, the experiment won’t hurt if it doesn’t work out.
So, the wine? A bright ruby red at its core, it does tan slightly to the edges. Doesn’t turn brown or anything, but the lightening to the edges is not wholly red. The nose is pleasant, perhaps inherently so, with notes of raspberry bush and bright cherry, and just a hint of dried herbs.2
The palate, too, is pleasant,3 and features notes of raspberry and rhubarb. The TRE Merlot is medium-bodied, and pretty easy drinking for a merlot. Very New World-ish.4
All in all, another TRE that is easy for me to recommend. Should be available at your local supermarket.5
Verdict: 82/100
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Between the alliteration in the headlines, and the use of footnotes, I hope people don’t start to think of me as affected. I also hope I can keep coming up with alliterations↩
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The specific herb, however, I couldn’t quite place. My bad.↩
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Though uninspiring.↩
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Or, y'know, modern.↩
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But then again, maybe not.↩