Merlot
Merlot was traditionally used as a blending grape in Bordeaux, but is now enjoyed on its own all over the world. It exhibits flavors of coffee, ripe plums, fruitcake, and black pepper. It is low in acidity, soft in texture, with low tannin levels. It is a juicy wine that is usually blended with Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. Merlot is often aged in oak.
Cheeses that pair well with Merlot include Ibores, Montasio, Pecorino Toscano, Roncal, Cheddar, Gouda, and Gruyère.
Alexander Valley Vineyards 2000 (Tasted in 2003) Recommended by Steve Arboretum. It is a blend of Merlot and Cabernet Franc. It is smooth with long-lasting juicy, fruity flavor. I didn't try this with cheese.
Echelon 2001 (Tasted in 2003) $12.49 at Twin Liquors. 13.7% alcohol. This wine is from the Central Coast of California. It looks like the winery takes grapes from neighboring vineyards for this wine. It is complex and fruit-forward, ripe and silky. I tried this right out of the bottle without letting it breathe, and it was much better the next day. The first day, the alcohol tasted way too strong. It smells like cranberries and has a light oak and blackberry flavor. Very smooth. It also tastes a little spicy.
Echelon with Bleu de Basque. This wheel had hardly any blue in it, so it was pretty mild. It tastes a little like a zoo towards the edge of the rind. Not so great with the wine. It tastes metallic and bitter. I have read that Merlot can go with some blues, but I have not yet found a good one for it.
Echelon with Swiss Antique Gruyère. Milder Gruyère than Cave Aged. This is nice together. The cheese brings out a lot of fruit in the wine (and in the cheese) whereas I don't taste it so much with the other cheeses. I like the long-lasting flavor of the cheese and the mouthfeel with a splash of Merlot added to it. It is nice, though I feel like the wine disappears a little. Maybe the cheese is too fruity for the wine. It may be too much fruit. It's ok, though there is some bitterness.
Echelon with Leerdammer. This is a Baby Swiss type. It is very sweet and milky-tasting. It goes well with the fruit in the Merlot, but I feel like the wine wipes out the cheese. Still, it is good. This cheese is so delicate in flavor, it needs something lighter. It was much better with the Nouveau Beaujolais.
Echelon with Montasio. Very mild cheese, but with a long-lasting flavor. These are alright together. I would like a more assertive cheese with a little more salt for this wine. They are ok, but they aren't very interesting. They mesh so well that they just dwindle down into nothing. This cheese is like an Italian Cheddar type, but I think a plain American Cheddar would be much better.
Echelon with Roncal sheep cheese. This cheese is salty, grassy, and sharp. This does go well together. This is excellent. I like the sharp, wild taste of the cheese with the light wood in the wine. The fruit also stands up well to the salt. This is a yummy pairing. It leaves a spicy, tingly flavor in the back of my mouth. I keep wanting to eat more and more, but oops, the bottle is running low!
La Noble, Vin de Pays d'Oc 2001 (Tasted in 2003) $6.99 at Grapevine. 13% alcohol. Moxy was peddling this at the counter. It wasn't my favorite of all the wines she had, but it was the cheapest. It had soft tannins and was fruity.
Marilyn Merlot 2001 (Tasted in 2004) I think this sells for about $24 a bottle. Brianna brought it to me. It is dark ruby red and very dense. It smells high alcohol and smells like ripe berries, like maybe blackberry. It smells a little like chocolate. It is very smooth and fruit-forward. It has nice tannins, but not too strong. The tannins give it a fresh tobacco leaf flavor. The finish is dry and tart. It doesn't taste as thick as it looks in the glass. It is very good. I like it best after having let it breathe a little bit. This wine comes from vineyards in the heart of the Napa Valley. Brianna said it was a very good area -- Rutherford. Apparently, each vintage has a different picture of Marilyn Monroe on the label. Read more about it at http://www.marilynmerlot.com.
Marilyn Merlot with Le Tonneau Swiss cheese. This is such a nice, light Swiss, but with so much more character than the Baby Swiss type. This is nice together, but I feel like the wine may be too tart. This cheese may need a wine with less acidity or less tannins. No, maybe it's not so great. The aftertaste is sort of weird -- like rotten fruit. Overall, it's not too bad. When I take a taste of the wine, I am overwhelmed by tart fruit and I don't taste the fullness of the cheese anymore. Still, they don't fight. They are ok.
Merlot (unidentified) Smoky, tobacco, chocolate, weird tart berries. It smells kind of stinky. Geoff brought this over. It smells vinegary and medicinal. Grass, wood, tobacco. Very dry and spicy.
Merlot (unidentified) with Cave-Aged Gruyère. Excellent! The cheese makes the wine so smooth. The tart wine brings out nuts and the milk flavor of the cheese. The cheese just seems to melt with the wine, and tames it, making it less astringent.
Montes Alpha 2000 (Tasted in 2003) From Chile. It is from Santa Cruz (Colchagua Valley), Apalta Vineyard. Special Reserve aged in French oak. $18.79 at Grapevine. 14% alcohol. This is supposed to be made in one of the best red wine areas in Chile. The melting snow from the Andes Mountains tempers the heat of the summer. These vines were brought to Chile during the 19th century, pre-Phylloxera. This is a pure Merlot rather than a blend. It was aged in new Seguin-Moreau French oak for several months.
Montes Alpha with Cave Aged Gruyère. Delicious! More details to come.
Santa Rita Reserva 2002 (Tasted in 2004). Tasted with Geoff. This is from the Maipo Valley in Chile. 14.1% alcohol. On the bottle, it says that this wine is made from the ripest, most concentrated grapes. "Cherry and raspberry flavors evolve to complement the velvety Merlot character and complexity is enhanced by aging in American oak barrels. This soft, balanced winedisplays spice and herbs and thus perfectly complements beef, game and cheese." http://www.santarita.com Musty, dark wine. It stinks like brine and olives. Tea smell, smoke, mint smell. It tastes spicy, woody. Dry finish. Cherry, raspberry. Puckers mouth on finish. American. It seems like a wine that needs food. It is not the best sipping wine. It is strong, smooth, but not really velvety like it says on the bottle. It is too alcoholic to be velvety. It reminds me more of a cab. It would be good with a big steak. I liked this wine ok. One other person who tried it didn't like it at all and said the sour cherry finish lingered too long (like that's a bad thing? I have a feeling he just wanted to give a negative opinion and then brag about how he sometimes spends $250 on a bottle of wine, which is probably a lie anyhow). Another of my friends loved it for its dense fruit, spice, and wood.
Santa Rita Reserva Merlot with Comté. Good, spicy wine. Lightly spicy cheese. It is ok, but not as good as the Gouda was with it. The flavors don't blend as well, but they are still very passable.
Santa Rita Reserva Merlot with Dry Jack, Vella. Parmesan-like cheese. These are not so great together. They make a bitter taste. They don't do anything for each other and even rob each other of flavors. The cheese doesn't bring out the fruit or the flavors of the wine.
Santa Rita Reserva Merlot with Fol Epi. This is a baby Swiss type, but much much higher quality. The wine overpowers the cheese. I don't taste the cheese at all with this wine.
*Santa Rita Reserva Merlot with Gouda, Uniekaas. This is the basic cow's milk, unaged Gouda from Uniekaas. Delicious! The cheese is strong enough to stand up to this wine, but not too strong. It brings out a nice chocolate flavor in the wine. The cheese also smooths out some of the spice in the wine and adds a nice creamy, nutty backdrop. Suddenly, with the salt in the cheese, the fruit pops out in the wine.