[CatoRenasci]

Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa! Or, as we say nowadays, sorry 'bout that. The nimble fingers weren't so nimble and the M-1 calibrated eyeballs had not been properly adjusted for operator headspace.

But, the point remains nonetheless: California Merlot is almost uniformly flat, lacking in structure and tanin, and sweet to the point of being as cloying as wines like Almaden or Paul Masson 'burgundy' or 'claret' were 40-50 years ago before the varietal revolution. Oh, they have a decent enough nose, but they're devoid of character (thank you San Joaquin Valley varietals programs of the '70s and '80s), have a short entry, blandly flat middle palate, and short to nonexistent finish. When not sweet, sharply acidic where they should be tannic. Faugh!

[BossLady]

Agreed! I find many Cali wines these days terribly acidic tasting primarily due to the high amount of alkaloids in the soil. Forget varnish remover, use one of these wines! Blech!

Have you given the Coppola wines a whirl? I received the 1998 Diamond Series Claret and Merlot as a gift and the 2000 Director's Series Chardonnay and Merlot as gifts. As a general rule, I find all of them to have a strong oaky flavor which seems to overpower the fruit notes.

[TEXASPROUD]

Cato,
You sound like you got introduced to wine at seminary. In vino veritas.