2014 Spring Valley Vineyard Merlot Mule Skinner

Community Tasting Notes (1) Avg Score: 89.3 points

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  9/24/2017 - ibglowin wrote: 87 Points

  I usually don't drink wines this young and I am also a Spring Valley club member. I also make wine and understand all the numbers. I thought it would be interesting to see what this guy tasted like since it had such a high pH and low (typically) acid and they just left it alone. That seems to be what they do in as far as I can tell. Minimal manipulation, what Mother Nature gives you is it. I would have adjusted with some Tartaric to get the pH down and the TA up. So what did it taste like? At first, quite harsh. It is pretty young though and after about 30-45 mins of air the tannins softened nicely and they wine was drinking pretty well. You could not really tell/taste the low acid really until...... after another 45-60 mins of air I was sipping on it while watching the Sunday night football game and little by little as the tannins faded way back the wine while still tasty did seem to become pretty flat. Not a whole bunch of oak either to help it out. So this was a nice wine that if consumed in short order would be pleasing but I really saw the effects of low acid high pH in comparison to other wines with better numbers, acids and pH's (3.6 pH and TA 0.6 or so). Looks like they have not made this wine for sometime. Spring Valley is really known for their Bordeaux blends and they excel in those which is why I joined their list.

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