WBW #9 - Spicewood Vineyards Rosé of Merlot 2004

Yes, it’s Wine Blogging Wednesday #9. This month the theme is “anything at all rosé”. Cool! (Literally.)

In April, I was taking in a nice spring day and what better way than to head out into the Texas Hill Country to take in a Texas winery. In this case, Spicewood Vineyards. I tasted a bunch of their wines that afternoon – in fact about all of them – but my favorite of the afternoon (just ahead of their 2001 Estrella Blanca) was their 2004 Rosé of Merlot. This is a really nice estate bottled dry rosé wine made of 100% Merlot grapes. The grape skins are in the tank with the juice for only 24 hours. The resulting color is not so much pink as more of a translucent red.

At the point I was leaving the winery, the woman helping me with the purchase pointed out an article in the Austin Chronicle. In it, it points out that the wine was an award winning wine at the annual Texas Best Wine Competition. In fact, it was among the top 10 scoring wines at the competition and won as the “Best Estate Bottled Wine”. Well then, I guess I chose wisely!

The Chronicle article is interesting for one of the other points it makes too. To quote:

“Texas A&M provided the perfect example of the impact of knowing on scoring when they invited a group of people to taste three wines – labeled France, California, and Texas – and rank them. In what psychologists call the "Halo" effect, nearly all of the people picked the French wine as the best, California's second, and Texas' third. Here's the kicker: All three wines were the same Texas wine.”

In other words, don’t discount the wine just ‘cause it’s from Texas. This is some good stuff. Granted, anyone outside of Texas might find it kind of hard to find. But if you can find it, grab a bottle, get it on ice and chill out with a very easy drinking wine.

Price

About $14 (Austin)

Overall

Very good. Dry wine with light cherry fruit and medium finish. I’d quaff more of it (especially if it was cheaper!).

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