MAY TASTING NOTES:

National Tasting (Merlot) - May 15, 2004

Tasting Wines:
1) Franciscan Oakville Estate, N.V. $19 19 votes

2) Bogle Central Coast, CA $19 6 votes

3) Wild Horse, Paso Robles $18 19 votes

4) Mont Gras Reserve, Chile $9 5 votes

5) Cellar #8, Sonoma $13 12 votes

6) Smoking Loon, CA $10 12 votes

7) Murphy Goode, Alexander V. $18 22 votes

Best Wine: #7 with 22 votes
2nd Wine: #1 with 19 votes
2nd Wine: #3 with 19 votes

Based upon the voting, there was a high correlation between the price and preference with an R2 value of 0.86. Clearly in this case the attendees valued the attributes of the higher priced Merlots.

Program Notes:

This was a light turnout as only about 30 members attended the event. This was the AWS National Blind Tasting and the focus was on Merlot (2001 Vintage). This is a blind tasting in that the wines were not identified up front. The bottles were

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covered and then identified after the ratings for each wine were recorded and collected by the table captains. The National Committee chose all but the Mont Gras Chilean Merlot. The Chilean wine was a wild card selection that was picked by the local committee.

Some of the Highlights

" 2001 is a good year for Northern California. The earlier Zinfandel tasting initially suggested this and these Merlots also showed good flavor profiles.
" The Franciscan Oakville Estate got more complex the longer it was open - developing spicing and exotic notes. It started out with a complex mocha/herb mix that carried over to a spicy herb/chocolate flavor. It had a balanced finish with good structure.
" The Wild Horse got more lush and smooth with time. It started out with a spicy herbed nose. The flavor had round fruit with a good grip and structure. The finish was long and balanced.
" The Murphy Goode wine had a complex nose with smoke, tar notes and herbs. The flavor was smooth with round fruit with spices and mocha notes. The finish was balanced with a medium length.
" The Mont Gras Chilean wine had a medicinal/camphor component with herbs. The flavor was shortened considerably by the strong tannins. The finish was very very dry.

Committee:
The committee consisted of: Ken and Eileen Beard (Chair), John and Sue Haberset, Joe Nardone, Dave Spulik, John and Anne Stavisky, Paul Vanhorn, Beth Camann.