More Merlot…

Review of Another Super Sexy Merlot

This week while drinking through a great assortment of Super Sexy Merlots, my husband and I stumbled across this one…Pine Ridge’s 2003 Crimson Creek Merlot. With a cellar chucked full of Pine Ridge’s wines from my days of working with the winery, I rarely look towards some of the older vintages in my cellar, thinking that I should hold onto some of the more rare bottles I have.  Though the Crimson Creek is not a rare bottle, this vintage of 2003 is not something that I had a lot of with this particular wine.
Speaking truthfully, 2003 was not my favorite vintage for many wineries in the U.S.  With the hotter temps of the vintage came hedonistic, fruit driven, over-ripe wines.  And really, I remember tasting the 2003 Crimson Creek then – I hated it.  I remember now being very hard on the wine calling it ~over-blown, saturated and sticky.  But now…my tune has changed.
This settled down version, only seven years later, is one with complexity, dirt, tobacco, supple yet dry fruit and also rich with cocoa, dried herbs and velvety tannins.
My husband has been craving Merlot recently, but has also asked for something to really blow him away.  After having it over the weekend, he can’t stop talking about it.
Of course, the vintage is no longer available but at the time when it was, the cost was about $30-$35.  And in my opinion, unbelievably worth every single cent.  If I would have known it was going to turn into this, I would have bought a pallet!
Just goes to show you, never judge a book by its cover, in other words…take another drink maybe a couple of years later – especially with some of these beastly hot vintages. In my case, I was more pleasantly surprised with a mouth-full of delicious dirt rather than all that over-ripe fruit that I tasted from it a few years back.
Cheers and here’s to Ms. Stacy Clark, Pine Ridge’s former Winemaker of over 25 years, for making such a delicious Merlot!