Penny Lane – Merlot

Date: 12DEC07

Name: Penny Lane – Merlot

Vintage: 2005

Copy: The PENNY LANE experience…Black Light Merlot is smooth and velvety with complex dark fruit flavors that glow with every sip.

Price: $10

Appearance: Still uninformed of the inherent differences in the different types of wines, and the typical characteristics of each region, grape, style, etc., I am unable to draw many meaningful comparisons between this Merlot and the previous Cabernet Sauvignon. I can say this Merlot appears darker than I remembered the Cabernet being – is this typical of the differences between Cabernets and Merlots? I cheated again and read a bit more of the Windows on the World book and learned that the lighter a red wine is, the “better” it is. I must report that this Penny Lane Merlot was quite dark. How much that darkness translates into taste differences in the end analysis is something I’ll learn with experience.

Nose: Bright and fruity; sharply alcoholic if you deem to stick your smeller deep into the bowl of your glass.

Taste: Here, on only my fifth bottle of wine, I believe that I’ve developed a taste for one type of wine over another, and in this early part of the race Merlot is looking like a champ. Though I’m writing this Critique on the third glass, and even though the taste here at the third is markedly different – and worse for the delay – than the first glass, I find a fruity and refreshing taste greeting me after the fruity nose prepares me for the same. As the wine is swallowed there is a fleeting feeling of constriction that wine tends to give me, but this disappears soon enough. The finish, then, is what I would call clean. This is a drinkable wine; more so, I would say, than the Penny Lane Cabernet Sauvignon.

Tellings: This is the last wine that I will review as an abject dilettante. With an eye toward (shamelessly) regurgitating the information, I will have read something on the subject by my next review. My plan as of now is to read up on one aspect of wine tasting – appearance, nose, etc. – per review, and talk a bit about that aspect on that review. Gradually, then, I’ll come about to a passably-informed Critique somewhere down the road, where I can apply all of my knowledge in one fell swoop. If it’s not a garbled mush, then I’ll be pleased.

After reading a bit more of the Windows on the World book, it dawned on me that I’ve been to the restaurant of which the book is named. Once located on the top of the World Trade Center, with beautifully commanding views of New York sprawling toward the horizon viewable from many of the tables, Windows on the World was, I believe, a top restaurant. I happened to be there on behalf of Dean Witter, shortly before they merged with Morgan Stanley. We were fed impossibly then slices of cold salmon with some unremembered sauce and some other unmemorable “fixins.” I do remember that it tasted good, and I do remember feeling pretty feted to be eating there, though at the time I knew nothing of the history or reputation of the restaurant. I connected the book and the restaurant and my memory of the latter together while reading the eponymous book and learning that the – the what, the owner? the sommelier? – considered Windows on the World his home. I’ll confirm when I finally get the book.

For those with a World Market store nearby, check out their prices on wine. As I bitched about above my monopolistic grocery store chain HEB was out-and-out raping me on wine prices. I didn’t know any better but on a hunch and a lark – the combination is nearly always serendipitous – I moseyed on in and lo! and behold found not only a great, whimsically arranged selection, but also prices nearly half as much as HEB was trying to coerce out of me. So I don’t foresee myself ever buying wine at HEB again. World Market has great chocolates, a neat and varied if not huge wine selection, and furniture, to boot. Beat that, Mr. Butt.