last night after leaving work @ 8:30 , i found myself unable to get into my house , since katy & the boys were up in modesto & i sent my car out for some paint work & i, therefore, had no garage door opener . as fate would have it, my brother called to ask if i would like to come over & help him drink a bottle of wine . what the hell, it sure beats hanging out in the cold or trying to break into my house .

i don't know what got into him, but he decided to open a bottle of '97 merryvale profile. unfortunately, he doesn't own a decanter (although his birthday is coming soon) & i have as yet been unable to impress upon him the value of vigorously decanting young, big, cabernet based wines, so he just opened it & poured it into reidel som bdx glasses (at least he has good glasses ). as is his habit, he overfilled the glasses, but at least these still have room, so i swirled & sloshed as best i could, while intermittently sticking my nose in there to enjoy the aromas of dark fruit & cedar & spice that was beginning to develop . after a couple of minutes of this, i had to have a sip. nice . there were some tannins there, of course, but there was also some beautiful dark fruit, currants, blackberries & plums, still masked a bit by the oak, so i took another sip & swirled & sloshed more vigorously in anticipation of opening this wine up as quickly as i could. this was a good 91 points already & if you like them young & particularly chewy, you might even rate it higher at this point. the challenge for me was to be able to make certain i got my share of this fine bottle of wine while stretching the consumption out as long as possible, so i could see how it evolved in the glass. so i swirled & sloshed & the dog tilted his head & looked at me funny. i watched the long, thin, slooow moving legs work their way from the top of the glass to the surface of the wine in the bowl while my brother surfed from nba basketball to ultimate fighting championships to whatever else held his interest for a moment. as i expected, this wine just got better & better, from the expansive nose of dark fruit & vanilla & spice to the afforementioned fruit on the palate winning the battle with the oak to the added bonus of some chocolate notes on the long, luxurious finish with just enough oak & tannin to leave me something to chew on as i swirled in anticipation of my next sip. at this point i have this wine pegged at a solid 93 points & the best wine i have had this year &, since i know full well that i don't have any of this in my cellar, i'm wondering how many ted has in his, because i'm definitely going to want another bottle of this soon. after about 45 minutes i notice ted's glass is empty while i still have about a quarter of the original volume in mine, so i get up & get the bottle & divide the remaining wine relatively equally into our glasses, which, of course requires me to overfill mine in order to get my fair share. but now i can relax & enjoy the rest of this wine over the next hour as it continues to develop & improve in my glass. when i am not even halfway finished, ted finds himself with an empty glass & pulls out another bottle, a '99 bv rutherford, with which to refill his glass. katy & the boys will be home soon & there is no way in hell i'm going to hurry through this wonderful profile for a taste of the rutherford . i'm going to savor every drop before going home to my family for the evening. by the end of the glass, this is still a powerful wine of excellent structure, with wonderful fruit & a long lingering finish. i believe this wine will develop further, with about 5 more years of cellar time, into a more elegant & equally delicious bottle of wine , but one would have to show remarkable restraint to hold it that long (i guess that's why some of y'all have such large collections &/or offsite storage) knowing how good it is right now: 94-95 points or & i'm going to get a bottle & decant it & let it breathe for a while. by the way, as much as i enjoyed this for dinner, i think this would have been even more perfect with a nice juicy mesquite grilled rib eye .

well, that's my story & i'm sticking to it. maybe some of you will think i overrated this wine, & maybe i just needed a really good bottle of wine or maybe it was the right wine at the right time for me, but i loved it & i stand by my admittedly strong rating. we will see what the next bottle brings.

gus@garlic.com

"caught in the jaws of life"

Spectator gave it 97 pts., so I don't think you will be accused of overrating it!

I had this on release, and while I loved it's density I felt like it was "hot" in the mouth and showed a bit too much alcohol. I have one bottle left to try in about 5-10 years. Looks like you thoroughly enjoyed it!

-DRAB

So much wine.....so little time!!!

It's a great story - romance, plot twists, the wine pulling itself up the bootstraps and turning into a classic, and I've got 2 bottles in my cellar, but if I see you coming I'm thinking your idea of a fair pour is not mine so I'll suggest we repair to the local pub and have a Guinness!

It's wikkid pissa

drab, it was not the least bit hot. i actually looked up the ws rating after writing this story & saw the 97 point rating. it makes me wonder what parker & others might have rated this wine.

tuarita99, i just wasn't drinking as fast as ted. but, guiness........ah, the nectar of the celtic gods..... in a pub in your stompin' grounds might be almost as good as a pint in ireland. for some reason, on my one & only brief visit to boston, no wine touched my lips at all, but there was guiness.

gus@garlic.com

"caught in the jaws of life"

I think this is a GREAT bottle of wine! I just did a topic search (w/o scanning the first few items on the page obviously!) and lo and behold, there is your post dated march 01!
Went to dinner last nght, just myself and my husband, which is odd for a typical Saturday evening; usually this is our social night. Took a '97 Profile, I did not decant at home but at the restaurant, maybe 25 minutes prior to the first pour. This is probably my 4th go at the '97 and what a beauty. It is starting to settle down from it's rowdy youth and show a bit of maturity. The tannins are really mellowing and it is just a luscious yummy cab. I can't say this is a 95 or a 97 point wine, 95 - 97, what's the difference? Who Cares?
Delicious.

*********************************
"my heart is drenched in wine"

This is one of my favorite wines and i keep trying to accumulate more. However, as time goes on, it will be wise to start thinking of the provenance of new purchases. I have purchased several of the '99s. Has anyone had it yet?

Dick

Tasted it at the winery in November. It's a notch below the 97, but remains a very good wine.
Hate the new packaging though. Changed from gold label to white. Not nearly as classy.

Cheers!
And remember: Life's too short to drink bad wine.