Good Morning Gentle Readers,
As it turned out, I coulda left this in the cellar for another decade, though it was quite nice the way it was. Nebbiolo originated in the Piedmont region of Italy and is quite tannic in its youth. The tannins also give it the capacity for aging that Cabernet Sauvignon does. Lay that baby down and keep the cork wet and you're in for a pleasant surprise sometime down the road.
Now, Gentle Reader, you may be thinking about that kitschy wine that plays off of a certain blond bombshell and is called Marilyn Merlot. And you would be wrong. Meredith Merlo is a Trinity County wine and was a happy collaboration between Randall Meredith and Ray Merlo (Merlo is Italian and means: Blackbird). Both of these gents are still creating wines, but not as a partnership.
Twelve years into it, the Nebbiolo exhibits the expected brick color with good legs (wine snobbery used to describe the way the rivulets of the wine appear on the side of the glass after a good swirl). It is a big wine, redolent of blackberries, smoke, leather, earth, and oak, all beginning to meld and blend into something more than the proverbial sum of its parts. The beauty of keeping a wine around for a while.
Serve this, or any Nebbiolo, with hearty dishes such as pasta and red sauce with spicy Italian sausage, grilled steak, or beef stew.
As Ever,
TWC
