Wine Review - 2006 Monkey Bay Merlot

This New Zealand Merlot from Hawkes Bay was on sale at our local NSLC down $5 from $16.99.  At the price we decided to give it a go.

The wine had a very toasted oak nose with Toffee and Mocha but it was not overly strong.  It was a nice smelling wine and had a very fruity taste profile.  It had a rustic sensibility and we would have a tough time picking this out as a Kiwi wine if we tasted it blind.

It wasn't a fruit bomb and being that NZ is not as big a Merlot producer as it is for Pinot Noir that is not a surprise. The wine definitely mellowed once it was decanted and it also became more elegant.

We liked this wine but at $11.99 we REALLY liked this wine.

	Tasting Notes:	Score:
Sight (0-5)	Medium dark Red Wine with the nice body when swirled in the glass.	3.5
Smell (0-5)	Strong notes of toffee and mocha with some fruit but it smelled a lot darker than it tasted.	4.0
Taste (0-10)	When first poured it was a lot stronger than the second glass but has good fruit and mellowed and became more elegant over time.	8.0
	Total:	15.5 / 20  (77.5)

If you can find it on sale, buy this wine. If not, it still is nice but $17 but that is a bit more of a stretch.

Keep on drinking!

Chris & Shannon