December 4
Tapiz – Merlot – 2005
We’ve nicknamed this wine "The Fireplace Wine". You’ll see why in our review.
The color is a beautiful ruby color. Lights up well by the fire, not too dark, but still pretty deep color.
The aroma starts with a burnt wood and sulfur and has a little tobacco and tar. You can smell the berry… more like cherries, or raspberries, but it is slight. Not bad, but not really what we look for in a wine typically.
The taste is something that sort of splits Rika and me. I like it more than she does… she thinks it is perhaps a little better than OK and I think it is pretty nice. We both tasted something like spiced honey initially. I taste plum and blueberry.
The finish is a strong point of this wine too, although not the best we’ve had either. The plum starts to fade and gives way to the ripe tannins and bitter dark chocolate and something like partially burnt wood in there.
Our fireplace wasn’t even burning when we tried this wine, but the thought of it filled our heads. This was due to fiery/burning wood smell and taste that was pretty much always present. Even while you were enjoying the aftertaste it was almost as if you could smell the fire burning.
All in all I think the wine deserves a try, mostly because it was so different and interesting. It isn’t really our favorite style of wine, but it certainly wasn’t bad.
Rating: 88 (Rika 87 Shawn 89)
Price: $10 (BevMo)
92 PTS WILFRED WONG. An amazing effort, the well-defined ’05 Tapiz Merlot has nicely refined flavors of red currants and minerals; rich yet lively on the palate; simply a wonderful red wine.
