It was a long day. Started out at the Ontario Wine Awards judging Chardonnay, Gamay, Rose and a variety of red blends ... then I popped in on my parents to see how they were doing (not home). Then went to visit one of my oldest friends (time wise - years wise) and his family - then I pushed off for home with a grocery store stop along the way. There I bought a pound of ground beef and pork and the plan was to make homemade burgers. But with my wife out of town there was no way I was eating 2lbs of meat, no matter how good that sounds ... so I made two burgers and turned the rest into a meatloaf (and I have to admit, now that it's out of the oven it looks pretty good). But I also opened a bottle of wine this evening and a Chilean Merlot at that ... with some age on it: a 2002 to be exact. I seem to be breaking a lot of corks these days and this bottle of wine was no different - I snapped this one in the middle, was able to remove another quarter and pushed the rest into the bottle; then I poured a quite a bit down the sink trying the rid the wine of cork sediment. As for the wine itself; it was definitely far from fresh fruit, but it had some really good structure and backbone that made it an interesting beverage at its current age. Smoky dried blackberry kicked it off, adding in leathery notes and chalky tannins. There were hints of all kinds of tertiary things such as cedar y-vanilla, cinnamon smoke and hints of cocoa (that showed up with time). There was also an exciting anise cinnamon aroma that began to show an hour from opening. Pretty interesting wine at 11 years of age ... a good, tasty wine, if you like 'em aged.
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