Tasting - Toasted Head Merlot

Name: Toasted Head

Variety: Merlot

Region: Acampo, CA 

Country: United States

Year: 2015

Price: $15

Winery Review: On the nose, aromas of cherries and black fruit are nicely framed by toasty oak aromatics of vanilla and graham cracker with a hint of ginger and cedar spice. The palate is a big and soft with flavors of rich black fruits and cherry pie rounded out with a touch of smoke and chocolate.

My Review: So I chose this wine at the beginning of the class because toasted head was one of the wineries mentioned in one of the books. I finally got around to trying it. I have never had Merlot before so this was a new adventure. 

When I first smelled this wine it was very savory. I didn't detect any fruit at all. Which was unusual since all the wines I've smelled up to this point had some fruit component to it. It was very cedar-ish and had a hint of roasted hazelnuts (kind of smelled a bit like my morning coffee) It also smelled like tobacco leaves and cooking spices. I wasn't sure what was going to happen with this wine, but it was intriguing at this point. 

When I tasted it, it was VERY tannic! Holy smokes! It tasted like cedar and smoke. Like burnt sticks when you eat the marshmallows straight off the stick after toasting them. That soot that is left on the stick and gives it that nice burnt taste. Initially it tasted more like a Syrah than what I thought a merlot would taste like. It was bitter and overpowering and AWESOME! I will say that it did finish nice though. it was more fruity and what I had in mind for merlot. I could taste a bit of cherry and maybe some strawberry, but it was very faint. 

For dinner, we paired it with honey jalapeno chicken, gnocci and alfredo sauce. It was an unusual combination, but it went really well together. I think the fatty cream of the alfredo really cut through the tannis and brought out more of the fruit flavor and the sweet of the honey and the spice of the japaleno really complimented it well. 

After a few days, I drank another glass on it's own. The tannis calmed down significantly and it was quite a great taste. I like this wine because it is not sweet in the least bit. But it has a lot of depth and flavor to it and it evolves quickly.