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- alif22 - 10-08-2003
Let me give my disclaimer from the get go... I am an avid Wine drinker but I honestly don't know much. My problem is that every time I open a bottle of Merlot and I don't finish it it always seems to spoil by the very next day. How can I prevent this or is this natural?
Thanks!
- Innkeeper - 10-08-2003
Hi Alif and welcome to the Wine Board. Try Gallo of Sonoma Merlot. A little bird told me it holds after opening as good or better than any other merlot at any price. I wouldn't know first hand, because I don't hold wine that has been opened.
- littlefools - 10-09-2003
I have opened various bottles of red wine and as long as they are corked after opening, there was never a problem of them spoiling. Do you cork them after? I usually have wine with my dinner every night, so they go quickly :~)
- Innkeeper - 10-09-2003
They should be at least corked, and preferably transferred to smaller bottles to eleminate as much air as possible. Drinking very soon (like the next day) afterwards is important too.
- flyingdutchman - 10-09-2003
IK - I've heard that these "Vacu-vin" pump-things are pretty much useless aswell, is that correct?
- Innkeeper - 10-09-2003
Haven't tried it (them) myself, but have been discouraged by the experiance of others. More expensive devices that fill the empty space with nitrogen do work, but the cost is much, much greater than purchasing and saving a half bottle for the purpose of saving half of future full bottles.
- alif22 - 10-09-2003
Thanks for all the replies!!! I usually drink Kendall Jackson Merlot and after 1/2 a bottle (i'm feeling gooood by then) I re-cork it but by the next day it tastes and smells bitter. I have also tried refrigerating it but no luck. I was just wondering if I was doing something wrong.
- Innkeeper - 10-09-2003
It is not a bad idea to refrigerate recorked leftover reds, rather than just leaving them on the counter. Just remember to let them warm up to around 65 degrees F before drinking again.
- Kcwhippet - 10-09-2003
As IK says, the small bottles work very well. Get one of those four packs of Sutter Home stuff and dump out the wine. When you open a fresh bottle of KJ Merlot, pour off half all the way to the top into two of the little bottle and screw on the caps. Put them in the refrigerator and just take them out and let them come up to room temp when uyour ready to have more. BTW, the gas is called Private Preserve and it goes for about $9 for a can that will take care of about 120 bottles. That's what I use when we have an unfinished bottle, which isn't often.
- littlefools - 10-15-2003
How is the Kendal Jackson Merlot? I actually was looking at that yesterday. I have tried the Kendal Jackson Chardonnay which is very good, but not the Merlot. Is it worth the purchase?
Tammy
- Innkeeper - 10-15-2003
Tammy, if you liked the Yellow Tail Merlot, you would probably like the KJ too. I don't care for most New World merlot. By New World I mean wine made anywhere except Western Europe. The reason, may be why as a new wine drinker, you like it. It was originally used in Europe as a blending wine or in some cases as the primary grape in a blend. By itself, merlot is singularly dimensional. You get plumbs on the nose and upfront, and that's it.
Some producers add another dimension with oak. In rare cases other facts can be added to the wine by very old wines usually grown in very special places. There are a few such situations in Californa, but the wine from those sites are quite expensive, i.e. Duckhorn. There are additional sites in Europe that have been farmed for centuries. Two such are the East Bank of the Garonne in Bordeaux, and the Collio Region of Italy.
Of approximately ten cases of wine in my cellar, two bottles are merlot. Both are from Italy. One is from Collio and is aging. The other is a blend with cabernet sauvignon.
- littlefools - 10-15-2003
Well, I will try some wines from Western Europe, are they expensive? Also, you said you have only two bottles of merlot in your wine cellar. Is that because you prefer whites or do you like other reds?
- Innkeeper - 10-15-2003
My wine cellar is 85% red. The reason for just two merlots is that I don't like most of them. Of the two I have the blend came from Is-Wine for aroung $11. The Collio Merlot is one of the higher end ones, and cost $18. Have recently finished a box that only ran $11 per bottle. So, I guess what I'm saying is that you can get good Italian Merlot starting at $11. This does not mean you can run out and get any Italian Merlot you can find. Most of them are just as lousy as most New World merlots.
- dananne - 10-15-2003
Speaking from my personal experience, and not making any assumptions (we all have a different learning/experimentation curve when beginning the "wine journey" thing), I started out really liking merlot. I found it approachable, easy to drink, and with flavors and aromas that I could easily identify with my inexperienced palate. I could usually recognize a plummy fruit flavor and frequently was able to detect some vanilla that I later learned was from the oak. When I started to experiment, it was with other merlot, but I began to get a bit bored -- I didn't see a whole lot of difference in what I was drinking (admittedly, I was staying around the same $10-ish price point). So, I began to branch out -- first with Australian syrah, actually. Eventually, I developed a wider appreciation of all the many wonderful other grapes that are out there, and I just have not returned to merlot all that often. Like Innkeeper, I have a very few merlot bottles in my cellar (I think I have 1 currently, out of about 180 bottles). The last one I had was about six months ago, and was an interesting one from a smaller southern Oregon winery that specializes in the Spanish tempranillo grape, of all things.
I guess what I'm trying to say (and, I hope I have not done so in an authoritative, condescending way, as I'm not nearly as experienced as most of the regulars on the board), is that there are a whole lot of wonderful wines out there that I only discovered after branching out from merlot. I'm not saying that merlot is bad -- I had many that I really enjoyed and have fond memories of -- but that experimentation is fun and, to my mind, one of the great things about wine. It is impossible to get bored!
Anyway, a belated welcome to the board, and happy drinking [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/smile.gif[/img]
- Innkeeper - 10-15-2003
Beautifully put Dan.
- wineguruchgo - 10-18-2003
Drink what you like. If you like Merlot, have at it!!
The answer to your question is this. Buy a can of Wine Reserve Wine Preserve. You can get it in a good wine store.
Basically wine dislikes 3 things. Oxygen, heat and light. It's really hard to control the oxygen which is why they made this.
The Preserve is actually nitrogen in a can. The can will feel empty, but it's in there. By spraying the nitrogen into the bottle you are forcing the oxygen out and this forms a layer between the cork and the wine.
The wine will last a lot longer this way. Here in Chicago it's about 8 bucks.
- Thomas - 10-18-2003
I agree, drink what you like, and preserve what you do not finish. But what you like today will change as you explore and experience the multitude of wines that are available, from Old, New and Hidden Worlds.
There are literally hundreds of thousands of wines on the market, produced from approximately 9,000 separate grape varieties; merlot is just one grape variety. And any one producer's merlot wine represents only that individual wine. So you see, you have a lifetime of exploration in front of you--which is the best part of the subject of wine.
- wineguruchgo - 10-18-2003
To add onto Foodie's reply with the number of wines in the world - here is a little tidbit!
There are over 30,000 sku's of Chardonnay in the world.
That's a lot of grapes!
- Thomas - 10-19-2003
...and to make matters more confusing, when a wine label says Merlot or Chardonnay or any single grape variety name, the wine is anywhere from 100 to 75 percent of that grape by volume. This is why, in part, one producer's Merlot is different from another's--one might have added 25% of a different grape variety/ies than the other, which definitely changes each Merlot wine.
- Kcwhippet - 10-19-2003
Sort of like KJ Chard. It's advertised as all Chardonnay, but it has as much as 6% unfermented Muscat juice to add that little bit of sweetness.