Well, maybe some of it is, and that’s the reason this reasoning has gotten traction. But so many quality Merlots are left out of the conversation. Beringer’s Merlots have been stupendous for years, especially the Bancroft Ranch. Pahlmeyer and Pride have Merlots that easily stand above the crowd. Etude’s bottlings are age-worthy, and Shafer Merlots – earlier to mature – provide instant gratification. I’d push any Pinot Noir off the table to make way for a Château St. Jean Merlot, and Joe Cafaro still makes Merlots that sing.

Then there’s Duckhorn, Havens, Keenan, St. Francis, Château Ste. Michelle, and Matanzas Creek. In fact, during an extensive tasting of Merlots for a cover story in Wine News a few years back, I concluded that almost any Merlot from the cooler climes of Carneros would be a special treat.

Through the years, Merlot styles have changed and, after the initial boom-years in the 1990s, better terroir has been chosen for plantings. Below are a few recent tasting notes that might offer a primer on the grape.

  Beringer 2008 (Napa Valley, $21). A rich ruby red, with coffee and licorice aromas hosting hints on dark berries and milk chocolate, forward flavors and nicely balanced. Score: 87

Beringer 2006 Howell Mountain Bancroft Ranch (Napa Valley, $75) Up-front aromas of coffee and dark chocolate, with latent dark berry aromas, soft tannins, sumptuous red fruit, and wonderfully balanced. Score: 93

Charles Krug 2008 (Napa Valley, $24). Deep and dense in color and aroma, black cherry and petrol like Pomerol, hefty body, rich textured and dense fruit flavors. Score: 91

Castello di Gabbiano 2007 Alleanza (Tuscany, $35). Soft red fruit, rich body, tangy acidity, dry impression but fruity finish. Score: 90

Columbia Crest 2007 Reserve (Columbia Valley $30). Delicate aromas but pungent flavors. Score: 88

http://www.pridewines.com/content/default1421.html

Kenny’s latest batch of wines is another example of his consistent quality.  All of them come from fruit grown on a 100 acre hillside vineyard in Alexander Valley, which is covered with blue stones and serpentine boulders.  He bottles the wines at three quality levels.  The entry level Baby Blue is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Franc, Syrah, Merlot, and Malbec.  It is truly a wine for everyone; a special occasion bottle for those on a budget or a daily drinker for the collector-types.  It has that soft richness to it that is commonly found in ultra-premium Napa Cabernets that have cellared for 10 or so years.

Kenny’s flagship Cabernets are good candidates for such cellaring.  The elegance of these complex and powerful reds needs time to emerge.  I brought the 2008 and 2009 to a dinner party full of wine-savvy friends and they were a big hit, though one person expressed regret that I was not able to bring vintages from earlier in the decade so that he could get a real sense of the wine’s potential.   I reminded him that with wine, good things come to those who wait.

So most of us have huddled inside our homes where the air conditioner groans under loads that violate manufacturers’ specs and wait for deliverance. As the perceptibly cooler air wafts about and slowly curbs the rising body temperature, thoughts turn to red wine.

What else? I’ve always said that A/C was invented to make it possible to drink red wine in summertime.

It seemed like a perfect time to test the reports of a superior vintage coming from California in 2007. Vintage scores in the high-90s by many wine publications suggest that there’s much to look forward to.

But why wait for the next anniversary or the hoped-for kid’s scholarship? With temperatures holding steady at Underworld levels, we need to take care of ourselves – - now.

Souverain 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon (Alexander Valley, $17). Scents of wet earth and oak, black cherry, plums on nose, currants, black cherry, soft textures, full body.

Dry Creek Vineyard 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon (Dry Creek Valley, $25). First impression is tobacco smoke and oak, with deep long lasting dark fruit aromas and flavors.

Ferrari-Carano 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon (Alexander Valley, $30). Black cherry, cassis and plums on the nose, same impression on the palate, dense cherry flavors, intense, long finish.

Rodney Strong 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve (Alexander Valley, $45). Rich, dark fruit and licorice accents on the nose, followed by cranberry, plums, and cassis on the palate, with licorice and mint accents.

Sbragia Family Vineyards 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Monte RossoVineyard (Sonoma Valley, $50). Black cherry, cola, and plums on nose and palate, soft approach, incredibly deep and textured, a magnificent wine.

Ferrari-Carano 2007 Tresor (Alexander Valley, $58). Rich vibrant aromas of dark fruit and earth notes, mocha and cassis dominates the flavor profile, layers of black cherry and boisenberry, soft silky finish.

Rodney Strong 2007 Rockaway Cabernet Sauvignon (Alexander Valley, $75). Brewed coffee aromas, with concentrated black cherry flavors, dense and chewy, soft tannins, hint of chocolate on finish.

Sbragia Family Vineyards 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Rancho del Oso (Howell Mountain, Napa Valley, $75). Superb balance, richly textured dense and concentrated, reminiscent of black fruit, herbs, and subtle earth tones, this is a keeper.

Chateau St. Jean 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Cinq Cepages (Sonoma County, $75). Packed with black plum and black cherry aromas, dense and chewy, black plum flavors accented by roasted coffee bean, slight hints of mocha on finish.

John suggested Peay Vineyards “La Bruma” Syrah, Sonoma Coast.  The wine is deep purple and offers dark berries and fig on the nose.  The wine is medium-bodied, and tightly wound at first so it would benefit from decanting.  Bacon fat, berry and graphite are ushered in by supple tannins.

John has worked side-by-side with James Beard Award-winning chef Nancy Oakes for 14 years.  ”At Boulevard I take a global view of wine, offering a little bit of everything.  Our wines by the glass are chosen to fit snugly with food, and our bottle list is readable, not daunting,” said John.

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Jeff produces his wines from grapes grown on 16 acres of the Casa Santinamaria Vineyard.  The winery practices field blending, in which grape varieties are blended in the vineyard planting instead of the winery.  The Cabernet Sauvignon is a special release, as most of their vineyard space is devoted to Zinfandel, Pinot Noir, Syrah and Semillon.

Massimo is proud that his food products are 100% natural, hormone-free, antibiotic-free, & of the highest quality of organic & biodynamic seasonal offerings.  To Massimo, food and wine are inseparable.  He crafts his dishes with wine pairings in mind.  The seasonal menu is designed with six categories of wine styles & complimentary food selections.

Cline Cellars was founded by Fred Cline, grandson of Valeriano Jacuzzi, inventor of the Jacuzzi tub (Cline also owns Jacuzzi Vineyards).  However, the Jacuzzi family also grew vines on a farm in Oakley–located in Costra County, California–where Fred Cline spent his summers learning about farming. Planted as far back as the 1800s, these vines include two Rhone grapes: Mourvèdre and Carignane as well as Zinfandel. After inheriting these ancient vineyards, Fred Cline launched Cline Cellars, which now makes wines from the vines at the Oakley vineyard, some of which are more than 100 years old.  Low yielding, these plants produce rich and intensely flavored wines.

In the early 1990s, Cline eventually moved with is wife Nancy to the Carneros region of Sonoma County where they planted more Rhone varietals—Syrah, Mourvèdre, Roussanne—which were not commonly planted in that relatively cooler region. But Cline Cellars has produced some amazingly good results, proving that the area was good for a wider range of varietals than Pinot Noir and other cool climate grapes common in Carneros.  Cline also owns vineyard land in nearby Petaluma.

Cline Cellars is now counted among a host of wineries that make Rhone-styled wines in America that are collectively called “The Rhone Rangers.” Several Rhone Rangers are coming to D.C. for an event on June 10 for wine trade and  press.  However, they are offering  a select-number of tickets for the public; book your space ASAP before they run out!. See the Weekly Wine Pick Event Calendar for more information.

You don’t have to attend this event to find great Cline wines. I enjoy the full spectrum of their portfolio and would recommend any of them.  However, below I list a few favorites.

Big Break Zinfandel.  Aged 11 months in French oak, this is an incredibly rich and well-balanced Zinfandel from very old vines grown in the Big Break vineyard of Oakley.  The land is also near a Eucalyptus grove, which somehow imparts Eucalyptus mint flavors into the wine.  Although a very big wine with intense flavor, it is still soft and approachable; and it can last up to 7 years in the cellar.  The Wine Spectator gives it 89 points, but I think it should be at least a 90!  This wine is so good that it’s worth paying the shipping if you can’t find it locally.  I recently discovered it on Wine.com for about $27 per bottle.  Wine.com is a good mail order business if you like to shop regularly online because you can pay an annual shipping rate of $49 to cover all shipping costs for an entire year.

Cline Cashmere.  I recently discovered this one at Whole Foods for about $16 a bottle.  The name for this Mourvèdre, Grenache, Syrah blend is on the mark as its most immediately notable quality is an unusually silky and soft texture on the palate.  That is followed by delicate fruit flavors.  The winemaker notes describe it very well:  “Cashmere is a very flavorful smooth wine offering big cherry, raspberry and chocolate notes with hints of cracked black pepper and plum.”

Cline Cellars Zinfandel.  Cline’s value priced Zinfandel deserves much praise because it delivers big at a value price of about $10 a bottle.  Look for the 2008 vintage in particular, which is probably on the shelves now.  This wine is a blend of grapes from Cline’s Oakley vineyard as well as grapes from Sonoma and other parts of California including Lodi (69 percent of the 2008 blend).  Winemaker notes explain that it “showcases a wide array of dark berry fruit including black cherry and raspberry … spice notes and a lasting finish of Vanilla from oak aging and firm, supple tannins add complexity to the wine.”

Cline Late Harvest Mourvèdre, 2006.  This was highlighted in a post last week here on the Weekly Wine Pick, but it is worth noting again.  This is a very unique wine—a sweet red–which frankly surprised me with its rich smooth complex flavors.

Their many other wines also deserve praise. Check out their website to see the full list and keep an eye out when you shop.

If she likes sweet wine, consider an Italian Moscato d’Asti, which is produced in Italy’s Piedmont region near the town of Asti. Piedmont basically translates into “at the foot of the mountain,” which is appropriate for this northwestern region containing many mountains and hills. It is also home to Italy’s heavy hitters, like Barolo and Barbaresco.

Among the great producers is Luca Currado Vietti, who has taken the traditions of his family winery into the 21st Century, while also employing modern techniques. James Suckling of the Wine Spectator notes: “Vietti makes some of the cleanest, most terroir-driven wines in Piedmont, with a rare subtlety and elegance. Yet there is also a traditional undertone to the wines, giving them a personal style that wines from other modern young winemakers in the region often lack.”

Try his Cascinetta Vietti, Moscato d’Asti. Like all Moscato d’Asti wines, this is a lightly sweet, low-alcohol wine that is described as being “fizzante,” which means it is lightly fizzy. The Cascinetta is particularly lovely, imparting flavors of peaches and rich honey. Total Wine also sells an even more affordable—just $11.99—yet quite good, Moscato d’Asti called Villa Lanata that is worth buying.

Your local wine shop probably has some other great options for Moscoto for mom. The low alcohol content of these wines–around just 5 percent–makes them a great option for Moms who don’t want too much liquor. In fact, it’s so low that she might want to drink the whole bottle herself!

Another fantastic option is a ruby port-styled wine, which is a perfect match with any chocolates you might also include along with the wine, particularly dark chocolate.

A real special find is the Miller Teodoro Port, Sage Canyon Vineyard, Napa Valley. On the label the first L in Miller is written backward. It was produced by winemaker and former professional chef Gary Miller of Miller Wine Works, using grapes native to Portugal but grown in Napa. Its suggested retail price is $22 for a half bottle, which is very good for this quality.

Europeans would complain that this is not a “Port” wine since it was not made in the Douro Valley of Portugal. Yet it is made the same way, which means a grape spirit is added to the wine before fermentation completes. The high alcohol level kills yeast that would otherwise convert all the sugar to alcohol. Thus, the wine retains sugar and has a relatively high alcohol level, making it lusciously sweet and complex.

Miller’s winemaker notes describe his Teodoro Port as “dark purple, garnet in color, and brimming with notes of sweet black cherries, brown sugar and spice, all finished with a hint of luscious milk chocolate.”

Weekly Wine Pick staff recently enjoyed this wine with a chocolaty desert and we found it outstanding. It has one drawback: it may be very hard to find. Miller only made 77 cases! We located a bottle in a small boutique wine shop in Old Town Alexandria called The Winery, which is located on South Washington Street. If that’s convenient to you, consider stopping in to see if they have any more bottles. If not, you surely will find lots of interesting wines in this shop. It’s small in size, but large in quality.

For an unfortified version of a sweet red wine with less alcohol, a fantastic option is Cline Cellar’s Late Harvest Mourvèdre, a silver-medal winner at the 2008 Los Angeles Wine and Spirits Competition. Cline Cellars only produce this wine during the best quality vintages, which means it’s unlikely you will a bad vintage. Their literature describes it as “luxuriously sweet” with flavors of “coffee, chocolate and berries.”

This wine is rich and savory—almost like eating eating chocolate cake with layers of very ripe cherries. Like port, it would work well with chocolates for mom. With a larger distribution, you may find this wine at a local wine shop. Unwind in Alexandria on King Street recently had some on the shelf.

There are so many other options for sweet wines for mom. Ask your local wine retailer about Moscoto and other ruby port wines that they might stock.

If mom is dry wine drinker, browse some of our other posts with dozens of selections from our sommeliers. You might consider getting her Women of the Vine Tempranillo, which the Weekly Wine Pick reviewed earlier. It is available at Whole Foods in Alexandria, as well as a number of shops on the East Coast. Check for more locations on Wine-Searcher.

My contributing writers, Angela and Chris, and my neighbors, Scott and Shannon, came over to “help” me evaluate the Blue Rock Vineyard’s 2006 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, 2006 Estate Syrah, and the 2007 Baby Blue Estate Cabernet.  I opened the bottles about 90 minutes prior to guests arriving, as  Kenny Kahn encouraged me to let them breathe for as long as possible.  The Estate Cabernet was invincible, with a solid structure that revealed more and more layers of cinnamon, espresso, and cherry as we approached the bottom of the decanter.  This is a wine perfectly suited for juicy prime rib or a braised lamb shank.  I yearned for more time with this bottle.

The Baby Blue is an extremely approachable and versatile red which skillfully absorbed the acidity of the red sauce we served.  This wine is made primarily from the youngest vines on the Alexander Valley estate, and a steal at under $30.  The crowd favorite was unanimous:  The Estate Syrah was supple and velvety, with overt cocoa notes and deep aromas of black fruit.  This wine comes from a 2.5 acre hillside vineyard that yielded 175 cases in 2006.

There’s nothing like 3 great bottles to strengthen bonds with new friends.  Blue Rock’s wines can be found on the wine lists of the nation’s best restaurants, and via the winery’s mailing list (through which one can get dibs on Kenny’s Best Barrels wine, normally Cabernet, which is made only after the best vintages).

Check out Ray’s blog for more expert recommendations.  As a judge for the California State Fair and Sonoma County Harvest Fair, Ray tastes a wide-range of wines, many of which he reviews on his site.  He is also the Assistant Director of the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition and is a professor in the Wine Studies Program at the Santa Rosa Junior College.  Ray is the author of The Good Life Guide to Enjoying Wine.

The fruit for this wine is grown in the winery’s Sonoma Coast estate vineyards near Petaluma.  “It’s a cool region near that gets a good amount of fog and the wine reflects it, with lots of spice, herbal notes and a bit of chocolate along with the blackberry fruit.  It’s a great choice for a grilled rib-eye or flat-iron steak, especially with an herb rub,” says Hansen.  This wine ages for 18 months in both French and American oak, of which about 30 percent is new oak.

Owned by Fred and Nancy Cline of Cline Cellars, Jacuzzi Family Vineyards (bearing that last name of Fred’s maternal grandfather) hosts one of Sonoma’s most beautiful tasting rooms right across the street from Cline’s original down-home and friendly tasting room.  Hansen explained that “sette fratelli” means “seven brothers.”  This wine, he notes, “pays homage to the original seven Jacuzzi brothers that started the Jacuzzi Brothers Co.”  The family moved to the U.S. from Italy after World War I. They invented the first lightweight airplane propeller, which they called ‘Jacuzzi Toothpick.’  But they are better known for inventing the Jacuzzi spa.  The Rosso Di Sette Fratelli can be found on the Jacuzzi Family Vineyards web site for $20.00.