Milbrandt Vineyards Merlot Traditions

Wahluke Slope fruit. Dark cherry liqueur, chocolate and a hint of prunes. Add vanilla and slight herbal mint to the flavor. Very ripe but balanced with nice feel in the mouth and acidity. Overall enjoyable, ready, not classic fruit - expands my definition of Merlot. Give it some time to open - maybe 30 minutes.

Bright red wine. Very fruity- bright cherry with vanilla and dusty tannins and good acidity. Example of great WA merlot for less cash.

Swordfern Wine Tasting #7: Merlot (Paul & Kelli's: Seattle, WA) : Tasted blind as part of Merlot-tasting. Pretty nose of mentholated cherries. On the palate, brightly acidic red fruit and some spice. Some unpleasant woody notes and a bit too much heat kept this from being at the top of my list, but 2 of our 16 tasters liked this the best.

for the price, this is a rocking merlot. dark purple color with an explosion of black cherries, plums and vanilla cola on the nose. plush mouthfeel, rich fruit with toast and chocolate. quite complex for the price, but it's also just really nice to quaff. screaming qpr at $12. 84% merlot, 12% cab, 4% barbera. 14.8% alcohol, but i didn't detect it at all.

SF Wine Exchange (Hotel Captain Cook) : Very enjoyable. Somewhat simple, but for the price, this beats out any Cali Merlot. Heady aromatics of mocha, black fruits, and cola. Medium bodied, velvety tannins with black cherry fruit, chocolate, and nice acid.

Wine Exchange Tasting : Red fruits on a soft nose. Incredibly juicy, mouthwatering wine. Lighter, and less plush then most merlots in what I imagine the price point to be. Instead the fruit takes more focus, along with the structure. Not really merlot like, at least what I'm used to. Not that serious, but very well done, with noce fruit. 87+

Recently had the Milbrandt Traditions Merlot by the glass at Dahlia Lounge in Seattle. Very impressive wine. Nicely balanced with layers of fruit on the front and a big, long finish. Great deal at $9 a glass. Particularly impressed with the depth and complexity at this price point. Not many Merlots can approach this for overall "quafability" and yet retain the power as well. I recommend it. BTW: I researched Milbrandt (actually Milbrandt Vineyards) and see this is their first …

Secret Crush (Gerding Theater, Portland) : Very sweet, dense Merot. Decent fruit on the palate: blackberry and blueberry are most prevalent. One of the biggest Merlots I've tasted.

appears dark purple, smell basic grape kool-aid at first and that is about it, as it opens up a more interesting (yet still sweet) vegetal aspect comes in, taste is again quite basic at first, very suave and smooth texture, dense, dense fruit, some suggestions of some other taste elements in background but they are hard to pick out, the finish kind of takes over the wine it is puckering and all too much, I found things to like about …