2006 Coyote Bowl Merlot from Church and State Wines

I needed a red wine to use in a pan sauce for this evening’s dinner, and Chris chose a bottle of 2006 Coyote Bowl Merlot from Church and State (https://www.churchandstatewines.com/wines/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=30). The dinner was a rouladen-inspired meatloaf (ground beef, pork, and pork sausage meat stuffed with dill spears, onion, and mustard, topped with mustard and bacon), served with steamed brussels sprouts with butter and lemon, oven roasted whole carrots, and warm sour cream and mustard potato salad. (The pan sauce was just beef stock and red wine flavored with pickling spice and bay leaf, reduced and strained.)

I found the nose very intriguing – at first pretty much all I could sense was acid (which is something I usually don’t smell), although with time there were hints of fruit as well. The alcohol content is high, but despite that, it was not strong on the nose. In terms of flavor, it was very tight when we first opened it, but it did open up with some air. And it was definitely better with food than without. We could definitely taste what was described on the label, particularly the tobacco, and later the cherry. It is more old world than new in style. However, overall it seemed rather unbalanced, especially in the lack of any real tannins. Chris recently tried the Nk’mip 2006 merlot and really enjoyed it (http://www.nkmipcellars.com/). He found it to be nicely balanced and more complex in flavor, although very identifiably new world and so quite a different style of wine. Despite our lack of enthusiasm for this wine (the Church and State), according to the website, it has won several awards, so we decided to gas it and try it again tomorrow. Although rare, sometimes wines are actually better the next day. We’ll let you know. Otherwise, I sense a rich stew or braise in our near future.