This is the second vintage of the Meritage from Estancia that I have had; I did not care too much for the first one. However, I trusted my man 'Big Money' over at Canal's and picked this up. If I remember correctly, I might have trusted him with last year's vintage, but to his credit, my palate has done some more maturing since then.
The first thing noticed when I opened this wine was the raw alcoholic power in this; I could smell it from eight inches away! Warning: do not keep your nose over this wine as you might start to pass out. If you can take the fumes, then you will get the explicit impression of leather and dark fruit in the aroma. You also get some smoke, which is the result of the Petit Verdot component.
The second thing to notice is the color, and in this, you get a very deep ruby with a tight waterline (google 'wine waterline' and you'll start to learn a little something something).
This year's wine is 51% Cabernet Sauvignon, 38% Merlot and 11% Petit Verdot. Give a wine just 4% Petit Verdot and you are going to be blessed. The taste is deep and complex and honestly, this would be appreciated more by those with better discerning palates than myself, but I get the depth of the smoke, currant and dark plum, a little leather and maybe a very slight twinge of vanilla.
This wine deserves a proper meal, which I would say something like goose, pheasant, duck, boar, venison, bear. I have heard of a couple companies raising different breeds of pigs and turkeys up north that have more exotic flavors and what not. Any of these would be a great companion. I might even recommend a fish like grouper or sturgeon.
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