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Visuals & texts
©Hannu
Lehmusvuori
Week 49/98
The time is
in Finland
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Master
Merlot
With a
Backbone
Marqués de Monistrol
Merlot 1995
Marqués de Monistrol
Penedés - Spain
49.70 FIM ~$ US 9.25
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Gaudi's Casa Batlló
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Inexpensive merlot wines seldom have a structure that penetrates my mind. They are pleasant to drink, with a character matching the yielding grape, but rather untortuous, juice-like, and easy to forget.
Usually merlot calls for another variety to give birth to an experience - or a real skill to build up a wine. And the latter is just the case with Marqués de Monistrol. An ability to give wine a recognizable character, to choose the barrels so carefully that the sipper experiences a little eureka: this is a Spanish wine.
Marqués de Monistrol has the plentitude of taste, tougher character than in the standard merlot, and mastering of the oak that lifts up the wine to it's own Spanish feet.
P.S. Congratulations Finland. It's Dec. 6, your birthday.
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