...over $25 currently available.
Six of us blind tasted six merlots, rating the one we liked best 1pt and the one we liked least 6pts, so low points wins.
All of these wines started out tasting very good. A couple ended up not tasting as good in comparison after a while.
6. 2012 Otis Kenyon Walla Walla Valley $35 - 31pts - 3 lasts - tastes of coffee and a little bitterness. Surprising because I usually find WA merlots to taste better than the ones from CA.
5. 2015 Sebastiani Alexander Valley $26 - 30pts - 2 lasts - lighter and drier than the others.
3/4. 2013 Silverado Mt. George Vineyard Coombsville $45 - 17pts - 1 first (exact scores as the next one) - fruity, I liked it better at first.
3/4. 2013 John Robert Eppler Napa $33 - 17pts - 1 first - nice berry fruit - my #2.
2. 2014 Emmolo Napa $40/liter bottle (we poured it into a 750ml bottle for the tasting) - 16pts - 3 firsts, 1 last (my #1) - velvety, chocolate and cherry flavors with a nice balance. This would have won except for the taster who rated it last, who said while he liked it, it didn't taste like a merlot to him.
1. 2014 Reynolds Stag Leap $48 - 15pts - 1 first (my #3) - I thought it was ok but nothing special.
When you look at the scores, the top two or even four are pretty good, but the Emmolo stands out for the price (even if it doesn't taste like merlot :-).
