A little wifely dust and flower in the nose, rusty hinge and squashed meat-bee fire alongside fish-dock and rubber-band. Instantly you know this old girl ain’t done yet.
Perfect garnet in the glass, crisp ruby edge and all. Well fruited in the mouth, nothing skanky or gaudy, just calm, still fruit with a slightly bitter background turning up the charm.
About where it should be for its age and origin, this is one of those wines with nothing extravagant and mind-boggling jumping out at you and also not a single flaw. This is a wine which probably hasn’t budged much in the past 5 years and probably won’t change much in the next 10. Cool, calm, and collected, nothing extravagant, nothing other-worldly, just great, well-made wine. Welch’s Concord and licorice in the finish tell me AGAIN this wine is in it for the long–but extremely well-mannered–long-haul.
2011 Rubissow-Sargent Merlot Mt Veeder Napa Valley 14.2
Stephen McConnell 