Rob's "Wine of the Week" Archives
So here is my wine review for the week of January 14th...
WHAT THE HELL HAS HAPPENED TO DUCKHORN?
Description: A long standing rule of Napa Valley has been that Duckhorn vineyards is a safe, reliable, go-to high end Merlot. Most bottles run $65-125 in restaurants but always provide a great, full bodied, smooth red wine. Yet, when I picked up my latest issue of Wine Spectator Magazine, I saw devastatingly low scores for a whole batch of new red wines from Duckhorm, which I decided to investigate for myself during Christmas vacation.
How and when I drank it: Friday, December 28th and Saturday December 29th throughout both days, giving all of the bottles I tried a chance on both days so I could evaluate them at opening and even after breathing for a full 24 hours.
How to get it: Duckhorn is available almost everywhere that sells great wine. High end wine specialty shops, restaurants, some grocery stores and Bevmo all carry a variety of Duckhorn wines.
How Much: At the winery, ranging from $50 - $85
My Thoughts: I tried four different bottles:
2005 Merlot Napa Valley |
2004 Merlot Three Palms |
2004 Merlot Napa Valley |
2004 Merlot Estate Grown |
I began with the Estate Grown 2004 bottle, which is sort of a meritage of merlots from four different regions and finishes with the 2005 merlot and found that I was asking the wrong question. Years ago, Beaulieu vineyards experienced a fungus problem which devastated their winery and destroyed the quality of all of their wines, which still lingers today. My fear was that something similar had happened at Duckhorn, but upon marinating myself in their wines for two days, I discovered that the problem is clearly with Wine Spectator magazine, a fine well respected publication, but one that has been accused in the past of using its reviewing section to lash out personally at winemakers the editors don’t like. Whether that’s what’s occurring in this case or not, I was stunned at how excellent the Duckhorn wines remain. Full, smooth and big merlots for red wine lovers.
Overall Score: 4 vines for the whole batch. If you can only choose one, grab the estate grown Merlot.
DUCKHORN WINES=
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