World Wide Wine Blogging Wednesday

Welcome to the first edition of World Wide Wine Blogging Wednesday hosted by Lenn of Lenn Devours. The theme was a new world Merlot (excluding the United States) that fell in on the retail radar under $15 US. In typical Edible Tulip blogging fashion, I am a day late. Sigh. I blame this entirely on matters of the heart. Gentle readers, my heart has exploded into a sea of airborne particles that are scattered across the river and floating. I saw a shooting star the other night. That's the only way I can describe my state: my "can't blog" "can't think" "can't put letters together to create words" state of being. But anyway, enough poetics, the good news is I've been drinking A LOT of wine. This bottle I pulled from my recycling bin this morning having come across the Lenn Devours site and remembering this wine blogging event and really wanting to participate but not really wanting to drive to town to drink wine in the afternoon after 4 hours of sleep just to write a good review. I had a small faith that a bottle of new world merlot WOULD be in my recycling bin. Just a thought. And it was indeed.

The LCBO (liquor control board of Ontario) has been promoting new world red wines since last spring so unlike some of you there is no difficulty walking into an average LCBO store and being greeted by at least a dozen new world reds (and many of them falling under the $15 US limit for this event). When buying new world red wines I tend to go for zinfandels and shiraz or cab sauv/shiraz varietals from places like New Zealand and Australia because for the value they are good easy drinking wines. But this bottle from Chile is also a very cheap very presentable alternative. It retails for $8.95 Cdn (roughly $7 US). I bought it in my tiny village LCBO which means it is standard LCBO fare and should be available at any wine store in Ontario. It has a typical merlot embodiment – slightly fruity in a blackberry way, a little herbaceous and taut, slightly meaty and earthy, a classic mid weight Chilean red that is fairly dry and slightly tannic.

This wine won the bronze medal in the category “Red Table Wines under $13” at the 2004 Toronto Wine and Cheese Show.

It is an easy drinking wine although for summer I’d prefer a lighter Beaujolais style of wine. The meatiness of this red deserves something slightly spicy like a baked ham or a flavourful Indian stew.

Comments

I can't quite decide whether your references to your heart exploding and not being able to write are indicative of good or bad developments in love--but nonetheless I'm raising a glass of merlot to you tonight, since your post has inspired me to crack one open.

[Isabel]

Er, just realised I neglected to identify myself there--the anonymous toaster to love was me. :)

[Daphne]

Oh Isabel, it's all good. And I'm glad I inspired the cracking open of a wine bottle. Cheers!