Now Paso Robles is a seriously, seriously posh wine-producing district in Cal-if-orn-i-ay. So I was somewhat....though very pleasantly....surprised to see a wine from Paso Robles for £7.99 in the Co-Op.
This Merlot is a really, really dark wine. In a funny way this could have reminded me of a Californian Nero d'Avola...if such a thing had ever existed.
Anyway...on the nose, this wine puts the Black in Blackcurrant, but is somehow more extreme than blackcurrant. As an avid consumer of porno videos, anything that puts the black in black of course gets my vote. A very fine, dark sweet exotic nose. Hefty tannins on the palate but very fine for a wine of this price point. And, no longer than a mere 30 seconds after I took my first sip and wrote that last sentence, I now have to say those 'very fine' tannins are very bloody searing tannins. Fine they remain, but shit are they searing.....on the finish obviously...hence the delay in not getting them into my first sentence. I type as I drink....
Controversially, I can't place the fruit on this one. Normally we wine-guru-pretenders (I just drink this shit, so don't call me an expert...) refer to the fruit of a cabernet/merlot based wine using descriptors such as 'cassis' or 'blackcurrant', then maybe bring in other more unusual traits such as kirsch or red fruits depending on the origin, style and terroir relating to the wine in question.
But this bastard tastes like an alien landed in LA, brought a pile of some fucking seriously abstract fruit from his home planet, and found a job with Robert Mondavi, (obviously he was pretending to be a regular dude using his shapeshifting powers...)
As it pans out, the weird interplanetary grape-replacement fruit he possibly then backhanded to Blackburn and James actually ended up being some truly excellent shit!
(By the way...for the benefit of the politically correct amongst you, firstly I hope that you all die soon. But in the unfortunate event you stay alive long enough to be reading, then I do actually know that aliens do not have gender. I am simply using the word 'he' in place of 'they' to accommodate the language understanding of the majority of earth people.... And absolutely no offence at all is intended to you abject miserable politically-correct fuckers. But if you do happen to be politically correct, then I do hope you die very soon.)
The closest earth-description I can muster is like a more extreme alien clone of black cherry. This wine is harsh to drink now because of the tannic kick on the finish. But no doubt about this being quality. Amazingly fresh nose + smooth tannins + purity and impeccable balance + enough concentration = lets see what happens in the cellar. The balance and purity on this thing really is extraordinary for a cheap wine. But what the fuck do I know? You really need to ask David fucking Icke.
Finally....will the Greys come before 2012 and furnish our cellars with a vast array of superlative old vintages of this? Perhaps the Greys will teach us how to taste their wine? I wonder what would Robot Parker think?
p.s. I give this 8/10. You can get it at the Co-op.
[edit] Hi Edna, Graeme de Menthe here, I found the 2008 recently drunk a bit thinner and give it 7/10. But it still possesses its unique qualities, which you so eloquently describe.
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