Our blind tasting game—without the tasting! Can you identify a wine just by reading its tasting note? We post real Wine Spectator reviews. You use clues such as color, aromas, flavors and structure to figure out the grape, age and origin. Good luck!
Tasting Note: Deeply structured and showing torque, yet offering good energy and focus, with black and red currant flavors, plus bitter chocolate, herbs and graphite.
And the answer is...
Variety
Our mystery red is deeply structured with energetic acidity and currant flavors accented by chocolate, herb and graphite notes. Let’s figure out what it is!
We can begin by eliminating Frapatto, an Italian variety that makes lighter-bodied reds with lower levels of tannins and notes of strawberries and pepper.
While a Touriga Nacional could show structured body with herb and mineral notes, we’re missing that grape’s hallmark blue fruit and floral flavors. Let’s move on!
Spice, herb, chocolate and berry notes are common for St. Laurent. This sounds right, except St. Laurents tend not to have high levels of tannins like our wine. This grape has to go too.
A Tannat could show our wine’s currant and herb notes. But we would expect an even richer body and higher levels of gripping tannins from a Tannat, plus smoky and spicy accents. Maybe another grape works better?
Merlots are often structured with moderate to high levels of tannins and lively acidity, along with a mix of red and dark fruit flavors accented by chocolaty, herbal and minerally notes. This sounds like what we’re looking for!
This wine is a Merlot.
Country or Region of Origin
While Merlot is an international variety, it has yet to achieve major significance in Austria or Portugal, especially when compared to local red varieties. A few producers use Merlot in Uruguay, but primarily for blends with other grapes such as Tannat. Merlot is often slated for blends in Italy as well, particularly for Tuscany’s well-known super Tuscans; and we would expect more savory notes from an Italian Merlot, such as truffle or olive flavors, as well as spicy and oaky accents.
Moving to California, where Merlot has a foothold in Napa and other appellations, these versions tend to be lively and rich with chocolate accents. This sounds closer to the mark.This Merlot is from California.
Appellation
We know that our Merlot is from California, so we can eliminate Portugal’s Alentejo, Uruguay’s Durazno, Italy’s Etna and Austria’s Steiermark. This leaves us with two California appellations: Russian River Valley and Stags Leap District. Russian River Valley is a leading appellation in Northern California and well-known for its reds made from Pinot Noir. Just to the east in Napa Valley, Stags Leap District is a region celebrated for its rich red wines made from Bordeaux grapes like Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. We have a clear choice.
This wine is from Stags Leap District.
Age
Our Merlot isn’t showing any significant signs of age, like dried fruit notes. Knowing that California winemakers tend to age their Merlots for several years, let’s take a look at Napa Valley’s most recent vintages to figure out our wine’s age.
Napa had a wet spring in 2019, and a harvest that stretched into October, leading to Merlots with deep structure, lively acidity and chocolaty, minerally accents. Growing conditions were moderate in 2018, a year of creamier Merlots with pastry flavors and toasty richness. Late-season heat was a challenge for vintners in 2017, and that year’s Merlots are savory with dried fruit flavors. There was nearly ideal weather in 2016, resulting in spicier Merlots with green herb and cedar notes. Of this bunch, 2019 sounds closest to the mark.
This Merlot is from 2019, making it four years old.
Wine
This is the Stags’ Leap Winery Merlot Stags Leap District Block 20 2019, which scored 92 points in the Dec. 15, 2022, issue of Wine Spectator. It retails for $70, and 758 cases were made. For more on California Merlot, read our tasting report, "California Merlot Makes Its Case," in the Dec. 15, 2021, issue.
—Collin Dreizen, associate editor
