The Desert Wine Guy - 2002 Beaulieu Vineyard Merlot, A Wonderful Blast From The Past

   The other day I was bored and decided that it was cleaning day and re-inventory day of my cellared wine collection. Yeah, I was bored and decided that it was time to do a little dusting of the wines kept in my collection.  While performing this re-inventory I also decided to run each wine (again) thru some respected websites that rate wines just to see how each wine was holding up. While doing this I came across the fact that our review wine, the 2002 Beaulieu Vineyard (BV) Merlot did not appear (according to the so called experts) to belong in my cellared collection. The price tag which read $3.99 was still left on the bottle. The tag also had a business name on it that said "Close Out Wines" which does not appear to be in business any longer and no, I do not remember purchasing this wine.  I pulled the wine out and set it aside until the next time I opened a Red. Well about two weeks after pulling this wine out I decided that it was now time to open a Red, a Merlot to be exact. The "Century Cellars" label appears to BV's label for their wines that are crafted with the intention of being a wine to drink within the next few years. This  lends me to a pretty big worry and that worry is, did the wine hold up with time, all this time? That is what I intend to see. Let's move on now and discover what exactly is going on with this 15 year old inexpensive Merlot. I for one am not expecting much to be left of this wine but we will see. I have always loved BV wines since my very first trip to the Napa Valley. Not only was my first experience there wonderful as far as the wines went, I also thought the property was delightful as well.
Let's begin with the nose of this wine. With deep and expressive Caramel on the nose as well as Cocoa this wine so far appears to be holding strong. After all these years this wine is still showing on the nose the initial qualities of a super, really nice wine. While it is early in the reviewing of this wine I am indeed impressed so far by how the Bouquet has held up. Is it wrong to hold out hope for the other qualities of this wine? While it may be a lot to ask of this inexpensive Merlot my hopes are indeed  I am hoping that the rest of the wine has held up as well as the Bouquet.     
On the Palette believe it or not there was still a nice note of Tannins that are present to enjoy. On the front is a Cherry that meshes with a Caramel as well as Cocoa. Plum comes across in generous amounts and none of these comes across as sharp or harsh on the Palette. There was a note of slight Raisin which I thought was rather nice and seemed to mesh well with the Cocoa the note also complimented the other notes in the wine and was perfect with the next note which is Prune. On the finish, or back end there is the still present notes of Pepper and slight Acidity that I tasted. For these notes to still persist in a wine of this age that I'm sure wasn't originally meant to hold up this long is simply astonishing. To me this wine is still tasting like a wine I could have just purchased fairly recently. The wine is very open and while it does have various notes I would not really consider it to be complex but would say that it is light to medium bodied. I can envision this wine being a knockout when it first was released as it is a knockout years later as I drink it. There is a sort of semi brightness as well that is presented here on the front Palette in the form of a Brown Sugar or Molasses that I was rather shocked to be tasting. A smooth and yet at the same time in your face Blackberry is presented right here as well to add to your enjoyment of the wine. One way to sum this wine up prior to the closing paragraph is like this. This wine is almost a Bordeaux style wine and makes me wish I had another bottle to keep for just a little longer. There, that should give you what you want to know about this wine so let's move on to the summary and wrap this review up.  So here we are, the end of the review of the 2002 BV Century Cellars Merlot. Now is the time to put the whole review together and let you know my final thoughts. Did I enjoy the wine, Yes. Was this a Merlot that Merlot lovers will like or love, ohhhh yeah it is. Is this a wine that Bordeaux lovers will die for, well I guess that you already know it is. This wine has a certain smoothness to it on one hand and yet there is on the other hand notes of Tannins / acidity that I mentioned earlier. Am I  impressed with this 15 year old wine? I have to say that I certainly am. I have learned a very important lesson with the tasting and my enjoyment of this wine and it is something that I wish to share with you. I learned just how important proper storage or aging conditions are to the preservation of your wine is and just how it can extend greatly at times the life of your wine. Do I regret drinking this wine today or do I recommend that you open yours sometime soon? I'll tell you this.

   I wouldn't go past another two or three years at the most before enjoying your bottle, I mean you want to enjoy it right? Would I Decant this wine or does or did this wine change in any way while sitting in the bottle? I most certainly would recommend that this wine still either be Decanted or sit in the bottle for a while prior to enjoying it because this wine did soften in one way yet also did come into it's own in another way. Here is now what you have all been waiting for, what is my rating of this wine? This one is crazy guys because I should not be enjoying this wine as much as I did at this stage of the game. This wine should have been spoiled a long time ago, however it was not so on The Desert Wine Guy rating scale I put this wine at 94 (Superb, A great achievement) points.

                                                                                                                  The Desert Wine Guy

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