Thursday, June 23, 2011

A Wine Lover's Weekly Guide To $10 Wines - A Southern French Kosher Merlot


Several generations ago the Skalli family was making wines in Algeria, which was a major wine-producing nation, 1 supplying France along with much of its table wine. Conditions changed and the family remaining for France following Algerian independence. In the past due 1970s Robert Skalli studied winemaking in Ca. He returned to France with the idea of making varietal wines, wine beverages based on a single grape variety rather than a mix. Skalli was among the wine makers who revolutionized your wine industry in the Languedoc-Roussillon area of south main France, bordering the med; the highest-volume wine creating region in the country.





Present day wine is kosher. The producer's website (go for Fortant rather than Skalli and then click Wines as well as Kosher) includes detailed listing of the measures needed for a wine to be kosher. The company produces other wine in Corsica, the actual Rhone Valley of Portugal, and California's Napa Valley but many if not all of these wines are not kosher and cost more than.







OUR WINE Evaluation POLICY All wine beverages that we taste as well as review are purchased at the full retail price.





Wine Reviewed Skalli Fortant Merlot (V) 2007 France Thirteen.5% alcohol about $10





Let's start with the marketing materials. Explanation: Look for blueberry maintains, sour cherry, raspberry, and tobacco aromas and flavors. Dry, tasty, ripe, and round. Mature and ready to consume with grilled hamburgers. And now for my review.





With the very first sips the wine was heavy and tasted of tar, tobacco, as well as plums. The initial dinner consisted of slow-cooked beef stew. The wine maintained its qualities and added dark chocolate. When I enhanced the stew with green jalapeno marinade the wine became stronger.





The second meal included roast chicken along with potatoes, onions, and carrots. The wine's fruit, acidity, and tannins were well balanced. I found dark cherries, some oak, as well as tobacco, and there was a touch of sweetness. This Merlot experienced lots of taste however was not thick.







The final meal centered around a boxed Eggplant Parmigiana which i slathered with grated Parmesan Cheese. The Merlot was great smoky and nicely balanced. It was moderately persistent and palate cleaning.





Prior to the cheese combinations I tasted this particular drink with Matjes herring. The wine retained its power, but the two didn't mesh. Most wine doesn't fine mesh with herring. Next came the Gouda parmesan cheese. The Merlot was partially gutted, but I did taste cherry juice. Not really black cherry juice, simply cherry juice. Then I tasted a Swiss cheese; it's a different Switzerland than in the past and does not have the term Emmenthaler but only Swiss. The wine had been persistent but seemed short-changed.





Final verdict. This wine is worth purchasing again, even more so if you want a kosher wine which, for the reasons comprehensive on the Fortant web site, is more epensive to produce. And it even comes from France. Unfortunately none of this producer's more upscale products are available in my region.







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Levi Reiss offers authored or co-authored 10 computer and Internet books, but definitely prefers drinking fine French, German, or another wine. He teaches classes in computers at an Ontario French-language community college. His global wine website theworldwidewine features a weekly review of $10 wines and new areas writing about and tasting organic and kosher wines. Visit his Italian language wine website theitalianwineconnection .


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