This featured wine is no longer available for purchase on HotCosts.Join our mailing list to be notified when a new featured wine is offered.2003 Trio Meritage, Napa Valley. Produced by Deerfield Ranch Winery. $55/Bottle, inclusive of shipping. Normal retail price is $65 plus shipping fees. Save $35 per 2-bottle order! This week, HotCosts is offering a library wine at current release prices! Deerfield winemaker and owner Robert Rex only releases his wine when they are tasting their best. In the case of our featured Meritage, this wine was barrel aged for 30 months, about double the time most wines spend in the barrel. Rex's winemaking style has its roots in classic Bordeaux winemaking using extended fermentation and barrel aging times along with the blending of several varietals to create the best wine. Clean WineOur featured wine was produced as a "clean" wine. Clean wine is any wine that has dramatically reduced levels of sulfites and histamines - which cause allergic reactions and roaring headaches for some people. To create clean wine, the winery has developed a three-tier approach to winemaking:The SO2 of our featured wine was 21ppm at bottling and 8ppm at release! To test the effetiveness of clean wine, we got ourselves a taster who suffers from alergic reactions to red wine. At the tasting, she could tell immediately that she was not going to have any reaction to this wine. Spread the word. Clean wine works! About Meritage (rhymes with heritage)Most American wines are labeled after the grape variety that comprises at least 75% of that wine. Many winemakers, however, believed the varietal requirement did not necessarily result in the highest quality wine from their vineyards. "Meritage" was coined to identify wines that represent the highest form of the winemaker's art, hand-crafted wines blended from the traditional "noble" Bordeaux varietals including: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Malbec, where no one varietal is 75% or more.About The Featured WineDeerfield Trio Meritage is a blend of 42% Cabernet, 28% Cab. Franc, 12% Petit Verdot, 10% Malbec and Merlot 8% all from the same vineyard. Grapes from complementary soil types and microclimates are blended to maximize varietal characteristics and complexity similar to how a fined Bordeaux is produced. The grapes were sourced from Nord Family's Trio Vinyards. Trios rich dark soils and warmer mid-valley climate are perfect for the Bordeaux-style blends planted in this Cabernet region near Yountville.Summary of Tasting EventThis wine was tasted on May 3, 2008 by a panel of 8 tasters in a blind tasting format and paired with Grilled Buffalo Steak.Dark ruby; medium body but complex with blackberry, cherry and pepper aromas; sweet currant, cherry and fig flavors are concentrated and reach all areas of the palate. The wine is nicely balanced with a long finish. Delicious wine in a lighter style that lets fruit dominate the aromas and flavors and keeps the oak in a supporting role. The winery suggests to pair this wine with Rack of Lamb or Lamb Chops. We paired it with BBQ Buffalo Steak. The Trio Meritage took on a supporting role to balance the Buffalo. All tasters commented how the wine really "mellowed" with the Bufallo flavor. This is a wine made for food. We held this food pairing in an informal BBQ setting.
Tasting NotesOur mission is to provide unbiased opinions of the wine being offered. These notes come from up to 10 guests who tasted this wine in a blind tasting format (wine is concealed so their identity is unknown). Why this format? Tasting blind completely throws out any hype associated with a certain winery, style, price point, etc; it forces the taster to accept what is in the glass without any predetermined notions. Our guests utilize Robert Parker's Glossary of Wine Terms for their comments for consistency purposes. In addition, we utilize the wine aroma wheel to enhance ones ability to describe the complexity of wine flavor. Notes are posted on this wine during the tasting to ensure they accurately reflect the impressions.Selected Wine Tasting Notes
Cris: Lots of pepper. I taste the Cab Franc influence in this blend.
RLA: I got lots of berries aroma from the wine but the taste is all currant and figs. Loved the long finish and the silky texture in the mouth.
PS: Very earthy on the nose but its all berries across the mouth. Nice long finish with only a bit of oak.
SP: Wonderful intensity of dark fruit especially blackberry. Medium body with herbaceous flavors of olive along with pepper and soy. I'd like to jump into a vat of this - it's so good!
BP: Smoooth! Love this wine. I get butterscotch along with dark fruit and pepper.
MA: This wine will stand up to any old world Bordeaux. I really like how you could taste the influences of the Cab Franc and Cab in this blend. I got Plumb influence from the Cab Franc and the dark berries from the Cab. Nice wild berry flavor and a good long finish that never loses it's balance.
Technical Data
Vineyard DescriptionTrio Vineyards rich dark soils and warmer mid-valley climate are perfect for the Bordeaux-style blends planted in this Cabernet region near Yountville. Part of the Nord family portfolio for decades, the immaculate vineyards clearly show the vineyard workers great pride in having nurtured these vines for so many years. This vineyard has a moderate climate with marine influence but warm, sunny afternoons. It has dark clay loam topsoils atop alluvial gravels, keeping the soil well-drained.
Winemaker's Tasting NotesWe add our 3 decades of winemaking talent, education, experimentation and learning from our peers to produce this wine. Our friends say it's a Napa Cab wine made by a Sonoma winemaker. This means the wine is more elegant, more reserved, compared to the more tannin, more aggressive Napa made counterparts. Its very much a mouthful, with big forward flavors that hit every corner, every place you experience wine. Its the Meritage experience at its penultimate. Recipe: Grilled Buffalo SteakINGREDIENTS:
Place steaks in a plastic bag. Combine remaining ingredients and pour over steaks. Seal bag and allow steaks to marinate in refrigerator for 4-8 hours. COOKING: |
Featured Wine
2003 Trio Meritage Napa ValleyDeerfield Ranch Wines$55/bottle inclusive of shipping! HotCosts Mailing List
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