Region: Sonoma Mountain, CA
Plump cherries on a slate board with mild blue cheese and sautéed mushrooms. The cheese deepens as the long finish continues...and continues...and continues. If only cherries and blue cheese were a better combination. I should have ordered brie!
My Quini Profile:
My Quini Flower:
Which means I award this wine a
.
I’d probably have liked it better with less of a mushroom presence—I am what I am. And that is a mushroom hater.
Other Winos’ Thoughts:
The 2013 Jim Olsen and Tom Shula Pickberry Merlot begins with tons of delicious blackberry and plum aromas along with excellent streaks of spice. There are also nice touches of vanilla and rose petals and perhaps even a bit of cinnamon. The wine tastes smooth and medium-bodied with lots of deep and juicy dark berry fruit plus great spice and pepper notes. This is just a really delicious wine to drink. It ends with a long, mouth-drying finish of juicy fruit. Succulent stuff for sure!
Jeremy, a NakedWines.Com Angel
In my opinion this Merlot is at the absolute top of its game. Normally I find the varietal soft and uninspiring when bottled singularly. Jim and Tom’s Pickberry, however, is the furthest from that I could ever imagine. It is polished, structured, and expressive in an unexpected manner, but it has allowed me to truly grasp the potential of the grape.
Appearance: Inky, deep and rich, almost to the point of brooding, reminded me of a Malbec. Very shocking for a Merlot based on my past experiences.
Nose: Ultra dark chocolate (90%+ cacao), earth, dark berries and a hint of spice, perhaps a touch of leather.
Taste: Lush dark fruit, blackberry, dark raspberry, cacao, finishes with mild spices. The mouth feel is divine. The initial cacao dryness lends way to the lush juicy fruit which leads into a touch of acidity that can be felt on the sides of the tongue but finishes dry, though not tannic in any way.
I’m not sure I have had a Merlot that was as exquisitely crafted and babied as this. I don’t say this often, but this was a wine I will remember in detail for years to come. It is one of THOSE bottles.
Drinking this bottle was itself an experience to be savored (and I did) as each sip was as spectacular as the next all the way to the end of the bottle. I was quite sad when the bottle was empty. All joking aside I poured every last drop out of this bottle.
Needless to say, I was not as enthused as other reviewers! This wine is currently out of stock at NakedWines.Com. It’s a solid wine, just not one that agreed with my taste buds.
Reviewed 1 April 2015.
