Back to Arizona for a minute, brought back a half-dozen or so wines from Cottonwood and looking forward to tasting them in a controlled environment–my house, my glasses… This is Maynard’s second label, and they were interesting enough in Sedona to merit further study at home. Lighter and brighter than the Caduceus stuff–and interesting varietal blends.
Big, smoky and dark in the nose, the fruit glowing ripe and tinged with a nice layer of spicy herbaceousness. Definitely not California–not even Lodi or the Sierra Foothills–fairly sweet and syrupy on the bouquet but not a *candied* sort of way the way I found some of those wines. Oh it’s candy alright–just a dark, distilled deep kind, the intense berry a little grilled with a topping of Vit. C chewables and the various brown powders associated with Christmas desserts. Clear bright garnet showing some definite amber out toward the wide clear rim. A bit of dustiness in the initial pour obscures things for a moment while they gather steam.
Tasting it brings back to light some of the cheery lightness I found in several bottles down there. There’s a grape soda aspect to the fruit, not quite cloying, not quite supermarket-red-blend-ish, It’s sweet, and superbly cherry-ridden, great grainy briar popping in mid-palate and making it QUITE the serious wine. Any complaints of cheery shallowness disappears towards the back–one of those wines which manage cool, refreshing grasp while packing a black, tannic finish.
You could get away with this wine in California no problem. Some of the other labels I tasted while visiting I can not say that for. The depth and intensity is just not there, and they would be viewed glaringly odd amongst our wines. But this one. I could BTG the shit outa this thing and I think people would love it. A quite beautiful little Iberian thing that tastes great now and has the structure to polish nicely in a decade. Far and away the nicest wine I have sampled from my Sedona trip. GROWN AT 4300 FEET.
2018 MERKIN VINEYARDS ‘Tarzan Red’ Temp/GR 65/35 Jerome Arizona 13.5
Stephen McConnell 