Forgive me, dear reader, as this post is a little out of chronological sync. I'll follow with my post from Sunday's wine-and-food experience at Four Seasons Whistler later on...
Tonight I opened the second of three bottles of OPEN wine I recently received as samples. This time I unscrewed the top (they come with Stelvin closures) from the '08 Merlot ($14.99/14.7% ABV) and poured it to go with our bbq supper.
On the nose, this deep, deep red wine shows both mineral and fruit aromas, along with a hit of coffee and something rather medicinal; in fact, when breathing in the aromas deeply, it burns a little and starts to clear my sinuses.
On the palate, this wine's soft tannic structure mixed it up with some really ripe red and black fruit flavours followed by a splash of coffee and dark chocolate. I wouldn't, however, confuse the number of aromas and flavours with complexity. The flavours faded very quickly. And, while it went well enough with dinner, I likely wouldn't buy it to serve to guests. It's just not my cup of tea.
That being said, I would sip this one again if someone poured it for me, as long as I had food to soak up the alcohol. Let's face it, OPEN has been very "open" in that it isn't targeting me as its buyer; instead, OPEN is targeting the Millennial Canadian wine drinker ready to explore VQA home-grown grapes a little further.
Salut!
Copyright © 2010 Kathleen Rake. All rights reserved.
