Kirkland Meritage 2011

Kirtland 2011 MeritageWine is a funny thing.  I am not a sommelier, but I like wine once in a while.  Since I am too lazy to take notes about what I like and don’t like, I figured it was an excuse to write some things down here.  I used to wonder why there is such a difference between the two (or three depending on your opinion) wine raters.  Eventually I decided to rate wine based on two simple things, price and whether I liked it.

Since I don’t cellar wines anymore, mine wine cellar lost power when I lived in Houston and 700 bottles cooked, I now just buy wine I like to drink now, or at least soon.  If you want a 100 year old Rothschild, I got a guy.  Otherwise, I’ll just be pouring something I like if you come by.

Our local Costco recently added a “wine guy”, and so far he has been pretty good.  Last week though he wasn’t around and I picked up a bottle of Kirkland Meritage.  Buena Vista Meritage is one of my favorite wines when the weather is cooling off, so I took a chance that Kirkland aka Costco was rebottling it as their own or at least bottling something close.

Since wine can be “difficult”, I’ll preface this with a couple of things. I started this bottle with some swiss, cheddar and gouda cheese.   Later, we went to chicken and pineapple sausage with dijon mustard.  With this wine the food difference didn’t make a difference to me.

To begin with I don’t like the “musty sock” nose of many sin’s.    Since this is a meritage, I have to guess there is some zinfandel in there.  The nose of the musty sock was clearly there when I opened the bottle.  A second glass was aerated using a Vinturi.  In this case the Vinturi cleaned out the sock smell from the nose, and most of the rest of the wines nose as well.  The glass that was aerated had almost no flavor by comparison.  It became a much lighter drinking wine after aeration.

At the end of the day, I wouldn’t say no to this wine but given the price compared to other wines in the Costco rack, it isn’t my favorite for the money.

 

Two Glasses - Drinkable, but not the best for the money

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