2017 Vin D Bordeaux Chateau Le Coin Winery

The wine maker made a blend of 85% Merlot with 15% Cabernet Sauvignon. This wine is done in Bordeaux style, and its young. This 2017 French red came with a good recommendation. Plus, its hard to mess up a quality Merlot grape. So, let’s try it. I prefer grabbing a bottle of wine at various outlets. However, many prefer buying from wine clubs. Anyone can do both, which brings me to the topic of best buys. My wife & I use to attend a quarterly wine tasting hosted by a local distributor. We would walk out the door carrying $200- $400 in purchases. At home, we often found our wines were lacking. So, we stopped attending these tastings. We decided the merchant was peddling either his worst best wines or his best worst wines. Wine clubs and regular scheduled tastings are too rigid for me. The merchants expect you to spend bucks on their promotional products. There’s pleasure in trying a different familiar wine. This Merlot blend gave off an earthy nose; mushroom. It had good legs, dark red in color, but got stopped with an artificial cork. Its taste was different from a traditional Merlot: • The nose was earthy, Mushroom. In tasting, there was tea, licorice, and mild sea salt. • The finish was dry from its oak tannin. However, my preference is a true Merlot over a blend. This one which is flat. The wine maker missed the richness and fullness of going all in with 100% Merlot.