Merlot is soft enough that we just can't judge it by the tannins. I congratulate myself because I knew the blurred out bottle was the Mayne Mazerolles from the Blaye region of Bordeaux, and now everyone knows. 2019 was a terrific vintage. On the other hand, the 2019 Sullivan was most probably a bit shutdown. Do this tasting again in 4-5 years and see what happens. Italy has something special when it comes to Cabernet and Merlot, they can make some really impressive wines especially in Tuscany, the retailers around here are just not into that, yet. There is a problem with the money as we spend more, we get less and less quality gains. What we are really doing is outbidding the other wine lovers.
Wowww blind tasting is very powerful. Props to you for posting this Matthew! These things happen. The more expensive ones are probably just still too young. Ive had expensive wines young and preferred the less expensive wines and then tasted the same wine 5 years later and they were totally different wines. Funnily enough this happens a lot with Merlot!
For those wondering, i believe the Greek Wine Matthew was referring to in the blind tasting was the Chateau Porto Carras Cotes de Meliton. Could be wrong.
Great video. Thank you! I love your enthusiasm. For me, the more guidance I can get on budget bottles the better. Also love that you included an available budget bottle. I might need to get to TW today. Thanks!
Respect for posting this! I’ve had experiences just like this where I thought I was drinking the most expensive bottle in a tasting and something far more cost effective actually won out. It’s an amazing way to find cheaper wines that you really like.
Just purchased the wine glasses you recommended. Love your channel and the enthusiasm you bring. Now I need to run to Total Wine. LOVE Merlot based Bordeaux.
I would also love to see how these 3 wines perform, say, after one hour in the glass. Usually, the more expensive wines (although they may underperform initially) can handle the test of time better than the cheaper ones, and they can really age. There is a great great blind tasting of Bordeaux first growths by Peter Koff MW, here on youtube, where the wines are very young and underperform. Same tasting was repeated with aged vintages, a few weeks later, and that was a totally different story. It is an eye opening blind tasting, like this one :)
Those videos are very good and you are right, cheap wines fall apart in the glass. Before I revealed I kept going back and forth to see if any wines fell apart (edited this dead space out) but none did.
Idk how ur channel hasn’t hit 100k yet. I just found you on the recommended tasting the 177 year old wine and had to sub quickly. Your honesty and knowledge of wine is A1 and editing is top notch, for me I would just drank any wine until I felt good haaha but I recently stopped drinking alcohol all together for my resolution going a month in now trying for a year then maybe longer. We’ll see for now I’ll keep watching this channel. Salute
I think that what really counts here is that it was proven once again that you keep things real, you are truly honest in your reviews and thoughts. Thank you and have a great Christmas.
Man this was hilarious. That's the power of blind tastings. I will look for the affordable priced wine.Sounds like a great value. Yes I have had similar experiences at blind tastings. Cheaper wines outperformed more expensive wines. I appreciate your honesty.
There you go, great video again..... and I did, some years ago at one degustation a Chateau La Bridane 1990 ( cru bourgeois St-Julien) out classed by far a Chateau Haut brion 1992. Tasted blind the truth is in the glass. Not on the label or in the wallet.
That’s a great video, thanks for posting, we want more of this! And tbh, I’m only half surprised, Bordeaux in the past 20 years has probably become the region consistently producing the greatest quality for value. Yes the prices have risen up for the most sought after chateaux, but the quality of the entire region has followed the quality increase while keeping prices reasonable. And no, I’m not even a Bordeaux fan…
Ehhh, great show! Just having some good CS and merlos from Serbia, that were meant to be sold in China.Economy changed a lot, which made my ski holidays more of wine holidays. Cheers Matthew!
Its for sure wild how the price of land impacts the price of wine here in the states. It would be interesting to pitch the $16 bottle against $300 bottles from the same region (although that may really hard to do). I think others said it as well, but I also find California wine is much more expensive compared to European wine for the same quality. I'm no expert but this might be due to the fact that wine making & agriculture in the US is multiple factors above what it would cost over seas.
I appreciate your honesty! And I agree with you on Merlot. I enjoy a good Cab Sauv as well, but if I had to pick I think I'd go with Merlot. One aspect I wanted to mention. I've heard also a difference between some American wines vs European wines. Most American wineries, the land and equipment and such are 'recent' purchases so are still being paid off. Where as in Europe in some cases the land and such has been in the family for generations, so there isn't that added cost.
I heard a lot about the Volpaia Chianti Classico 2020 and so as usual I had to grab a bottle and try it. I was very surprised, not the typical Chianti Classico notes and palate I was used to. It was more fruity and much more softer. After more research lol I finally noticed what I missed .... Sangiovese / Merlot - went down way too fast , need more bottles 🙂
This year I've had my fair share of Merlot - mostly in blends out of Tuscany. My favorite was Garzón's 2017 Single Vineyard Merlot. It's not cheap, but it wasn't the most expensive as well. Cotes de Bordeaux brings nice value, for sure.
Buonasera, a great, if not the best from some point of view Italian Merlot is the Galatrona from Petrolo, it does not come cheap around $130 ( in Italy ) for the last vintage 2020.
Cool video. And don't be so hard on yourself, this isn't an MW or MS tasting exam. 😄We watch your channel for it's authenticity and honesty, not for perfection. I also enjoy Merlot based wines, especially from Saint-Emillion and other Right Bank appellations. As well as Merlots from other regions, as long as they have acidity, are well-balanced and are savory, no problem. Cheers!
The irony of the “sideways effect” is that Pinot is going through a similar crisis of identity and broad quality, that Merlot’s popularity, in the years preceding Sideways, had that grape going through: inappropriate sites and overcropping. Also, I don’t think it’s land value, per se, as much as it is the land having been paid down, in more cases, in Europe
Everything in Napa is overpriced for what you get. I always find $30 Bordeaux to destroy any $100+ bottle from Napa. I'm actually not surprised at all on the outcome. Perfect example why I won't buy Napa anymore. Nice video...cheers!
these videos are the best for us in the cheap seats!! can you do a video comparing Négociant wines (Cameron Hughes, De negoce, 95 points) against what they are supposed to be. they sold saying this is $200 wine selling for $25 would love to know what you think of these, is it snake oil or good wine cheap?
Matthew, what a great video. Though not a professional like you, I know wine well and have been to tastings like this (a less expensive bottle mixed in with more expensive offerings) and had similar experiences. Thre’s A LOT of really good wine being made for under $50/bottle. Also, I really appreciated your reactions in the reveal. Totally genuine….cant fake that. Well done!
Agreed! Thank you for keeping it real, Matt, resisting any temptation to edit. And I always appreciate that honest-to-goodness QPR chart. The real skill on selecting wine is finding the best QPRs.
A little easier for wines in that price point to be just as good if not better than more expensive ones (at least when drinking young, which is always a factor)
During a Syrah wine tasting almost twenty years ago we tasted a cheap Chilean wine alongside, among others, Penfolds Grange, and several members of the group had the Chilean wine before the Grange 😊
Nice video ! For sure that’s no difference in quality between the 300 us and 100 us . What really got me in this video was that a Italian merlot should taste more old world and therefore be more easy to spot . But nowadays , with the technology , everything is starting to taste the same . This - for me - is not a good thing ! Cheers and great content .
I really enjoy your channel but I don't understand how you could have rated Château Mayne Mazerolles 93+ points. I just bought 3 bottles and after tasting the first bottle I would at best rate it 89 pts. BTW, I'm a pretty experienced wine taster myself with formal wine training. There's no persistency of flavor in this wine and a very short finish so can't be rated any higher than 90 pts. Interestingly Wine Enthusiast rated this wine 87 points. I don't know what Decanter was thinking.....rating a wine with such a short finish 95pts.
I get where you are coming from... I went back and tasted the wines several times and that's how they showed. Blind tasting is always funny. For Decanter, competition scoring is different and the wines are compared to those in the same price category, so I totally can see how this showed so well against wines in that price point
@@drmatthewhorkey Maybe there's a lot of bottle variation, in which case it makes me concerned about this producer. to me the 2019 Mayne Mazerolles tasted very diluted and this is coming from someone who prefers old world wines and not heavy, over-extracted new world wines.
@@drmatthewhorkey I agree palate is subjective but wine judging/tasting should not be subjective if you know how to taste/judge wine. I may not like sweet wines personally but I should know how to judge them. In the AWS (American Wine Society) if one judge would score a wine 95 pts (or 18.5 pts) and another judge would score it 87 pts (or 15pts) something is wrong. Wine judges should be within 2pts of each other in 100 pt scale and within 1pt of each other in a 20 pt scale. IMHO anything beyond that, means that one judge does not have a good palate or doesn't know how to judge a wine. The whole point of professional wine training is to take the subjective palate preference out of the equations. If 2 Master of Wine would taste a wine I'm sure their scores would be pretty close regardless if they use a 20 point or 100 point scale.
@drmatthewhorkey I'm a home winemaker; I've made Chardonnay, Cabernet and Amurensis with oak chips for either fermentation or finishing. They work well, but I use them lightly.
Merlot is soft enough that we just can't judge it by the tannins. I congratulate myself because I knew the blurred out bottle was the Mayne Mazerolles from the Blaye region of Bordeaux, and now everyone knows. 2019 was a terrific vintage. On the other hand, the 2019 Sullivan was most probably a bit shutdown. Do this tasting again in 4-5 years and see what happens. Italy has something special when it comes to Cabernet and Merlot, they can make some really impressive wines especially in Tuscany, the retailers around here are just not into that, yet. There is a problem with the money as we spend more, we get less and less quality gains. What we are really doing is outbidding the other wine lovers.
All your points are correct. Tasting like this is to be taken at face value. Sullivan will be excellent with time
I've written it before and I'm writing it again: your honesty and transparency are what really makes this channel great.
Thank you so much!
I love the transparency here! And IMO Blaye is one of the best in the world when it comes to great value in red wine
🙏🙏🙏 I knew you would love Blaye!
Wowww blind tasting is very powerful. Props to you for posting this Matthew! These things happen.
The more expensive ones are probably just still too young. Ive had expensive wines young and preferred the less expensive wines and then tasted the same wine 5 years later and they were totally different wines. Funnily enough this happens a lot with Merlot!
You are TOTALLY correct. More expensive wines need time in the bottle to show their best
Awesome video! I would love to see a number of critics put themselves through such self-testing together and put it all on the line like this.
For those wondering, i believe the Greek Wine Matthew was referring to in the blind tasting was the Chateau Porto Carras Cotes de Meliton. Could be wrong.
Yes you are right
Fantastic video! Your Street Cred went up 100% with this one. Great comments by everyone too. Love this show❤
🙏🙏🙏🍷🍷🍷
Great video. Thank you! I love your enthusiasm. For me, the more guidance I can get on budget bottles the better. Also love that you included an available budget bottle. I might need to get to TW today. Thanks!
Enjoy the wine!
Respect for posting this! I’ve had experiences just like this where I thought I was drinking the most expensive bottle in a tasting and something far more cost effective actually won out. It’s an amazing way to find cheaper wines that you really like.
There are plenty of those wines out there. Nice screenname btw
Just purchased the wine glasses you recommended. Love your channel and the enthusiasm you bring. Now I need to run to Total Wine. LOVE Merlot based Bordeaux.
Glad you enjoyed them! And goooooo Merlot
I would also love to see how these 3 wines perform, say, after one hour in the glass. Usually, the more expensive wines (although they may underperform initially) can handle the test of time better than the cheaper ones, and they can really age. There is a great great blind tasting of Bordeaux first growths by Peter Koff MW, here on youtube, where the wines are very young and underperform. Same tasting was repeated with aged vintages, a few weeks later, and that was a totally different story. It is an eye opening blind tasting, like this one :)
Those videos are very good and you are right, cheap wines fall apart in the glass. Before I revealed I kept going back and forth to see if any wines fell apart (edited this dead space out) but none did.
Idk how ur channel hasn’t hit 100k yet. I just found you on the recommended tasting the 177 year old wine and had to sub quickly. Your honesty and knowledge of wine is A1 and editing is top notch, for me I would just drank any wine until I felt good haaha but I recently stopped drinking alcohol all together for my resolution going a month in now trying for a year then maybe longer. We’ll see for now I’ll keep watching this channel. Salute
Ahhh thanks! It’s good to take alcohol breaks from time to time 🫡
I truly appreciate your honesty! Great work buddy
🙏🙏🙏🙏
I think that what really counts here is that it was proven once again that you keep things real, you are truly honest in your reviews and thoughts. Thank you and have a great Christmas.
Happy holidays to you as well!
Man this was hilarious. That's the power of blind tastings. I will look for the affordable priced wine.Sounds like a great value. Yes I have had similar experiences at blind tastings. Cheaper wines outperformed more expensive wines. I appreciate your honesty.
It happens a lot esp with younger wines. Doing this with the same wines with age on them, results may be different
Great blind tasting. I only had a few wines in my life, and would love to try more styles of them. Thanks for your knowledge 🤠
🙏🙏 for watching and enjoy your wine journey
Kudos to you for the transparency!
🙏🙏
One of your best videos so far !1
🙏🙏
There you go, great video again..... and I did, some years ago at one degustation a Chateau La Bridane 1990 ( cru bourgeois St-Julien) out classed by far a Chateau Haut brion 1992. Tasted blind the truth is in the glass. Not on the label or in the wallet.
Nice tasting by you! Blind tasting is interesting indeed
Really enjoyed this video and your reaction to the reveal was awesome! 😂
😂🤣 thanks 😮😬
That’s a great video, thanks for posting, we want more of this! And tbh, I’m only half surprised, Bordeaux in the past 20 years has probably become the region consistently producing the greatest quality for value. Yes the prices have risen up for the most sought after chateaux, but the quality of the entire region has followed the quality increase while keeping prices reasonable. And no, I’m not even a Bordeaux fan…
Agreed that Bordeaux is one of the best value for money regions in the world
Very cool video thank you!🙏
🙏🙏
That $15 wine from Greece (Chateau Porto Carras) is now over $40 and the current 2015 vintage's quality is, unfortunately, not there yet.
Ohh wow!! It’s affordable in Greece
Great video! Cotes de Bordeaux is really underrated. Some absolute steals available in the US for Blaye, Castillion and Cadillac.
You got that right!
Excellent video. Really well done.
Thank you
Ehhh, great show!
Just having some good CS and merlos from Serbia, that were meant to be sold in China.Economy changed a lot, which made my ski holidays more of wine holidays.
Cheers Matthew!
Good Bordeaux blends in Serbia for sure!
Its for sure wild how the price of land impacts the price of wine here in the states. It would be interesting to pitch the $16 bottle against $300 bottles from the same region (although that may really hard to do). I think others said it as well, but I also find California wine is much more expensive compared to European wine for the same quality. I'm no expert but this might be due to the fact that wine making & agriculture in the US is multiple factors above what it would cost over seas.
There are A LOT of factors, I just simplified the concepts
Great video!! My takeaway is that there are some great value wines out there
There are indeed!
Excellent stuff
Thank you!
I appreciate your honesty! And I agree with you on Merlot. I enjoy a good Cab Sauv as well, but if I had to pick I think I'd go with Merlot. One aspect I wanted to mention. I've heard also a difference between some American wines vs European wines. Most American wineries, the land and equipment and such are 'recent' purchases so are still being paid off. Where as in Europe in some cases the land and such has been in the family for generations, so there isn't that added cost.
Exactly, an extended version of what I was talking about in land costs
I heard a lot about the Volpaia Chianti Classico 2020 and so as usual I had to grab a bottle and try it. I was very surprised, not the typical Chianti Classico notes and palate I was used to. It was more fruity and much more softer. After more research lol I finally noticed what I missed .... Sangiovese / Merlot - went down way too fast , need more bottles 🙂
Very good wine and historic property!
This year I've had my fair share of Merlot - mostly in blends out of Tuscany. My favorite was Garzón's 2017 Single Vineyard Merlot.
It's not cheap, but it wasn't the most expensive as well.
Cotes de Bordeaux brings nice value, for sure.
Agreed on CdBordeaux!
Thanks for being so trustworthy and honest👍🙏👋
Thank you!
Buonasera, a great, if not the best from some point of view Italian Merlot is the Galatrona from Petrolo, it does not come cheap around $130 ( in Italy ) for the last vintage 2020.
One of the classic Super Tuscans!
Cool video. And don't be so hard on yourself, this isn't an MW or MS tasting exam. 😄We watch your channel for it's authenticity and honesty, not for perfection. I also enjoy Merlot based wines, especially from Saint-Emillion and other Right Bank appellations. As well as Merlots from other regions, as long as they have acidity, are well-balanced and are savory,
no problem. Cheers!
Hahaha thanks so much! Yes I am team Merlot too!
I love your reaction when you first checked the bottle. "Did I make a mess here??
Hahaahaha thanks
You will never receive another sample from this producers again. 😂
Agreed…
The irony of the “sideways effect” is that Pinot is going through a similar crisis of identity and broad quality, that Merlot’s popularity, in the years preceding Sideways, had that grape going through: inappropriate sites and overcropping. Also, I don’t think it’s land value, per se, as much as it is the land having been paid down, in more cases, in Europe
Exactly what I was talking about in terms of land costs, in Europe some of the old estates had land passed down, thus no land cost
Everything in Napa is overpriced for what you get. I always find $30 Bordeaux to destroy any $100+ bottle from Napa. I'm actually not surprised at all on the outcome. Perfect example why I won't buy Napa anymore. Nice video...cheers!
You just haven’t had good Napa wine.
Ah yes, that's it. Thanks for opening up my eyes.
I do prefer Bordeaux however some of the most memorable wines I’ve ever tasted have been Napa bottles
Let me guess...70's - 90's Napa were those experiences?
70s and current releases as they are making more and more elegant wines in Napa (although they are very pricey)@@sc3434
Have you tasted Querciabella Palafreno 100% Merlot from Chianti Classico area?
Yesssir
the answer comes down to your experience in drinking wine and your ability to understand quality
Agreed but I've seen even the most experienced tasters tricked in blind tastings from time to time. Wine is complex
these videos are the best for us in the cheap seats!! can you do a video comparing Négociant wines (Cameron Hughes, De negoce, 95 points) against what they are supposed to be. they sold saying this is $200 wine selling for $25 would love to know what you think of these, is it snake oil or good wine cheap?
At $25, it’s worth checking out yourself and if you like it, that’s what is important
Matthew, what a great video. Though not a professional like you, I know wine well and have been to tastings like this (a less expensive bottle mixed in with more expensive offerings) and had similar experiences. Thre’s A LOT of really good wine being made for under $50/bottle. Also, I really appreciated your reactions in the reveal. Totally genuine….cant fake that. Well done!
Agreed! Thank you for keeping it real, Matt, resisting any temptation to edit. And I always appreciate that honest-to-goodness QPR chart. The real skill on selecting wine is finding the best QPRs.
One more fun thing: would you mind at some point putting a spare camera or phone off to the side behind you, so we can see your setup? Cheers!
Thanks! All reactions and reveals are 100% aunthentic in Blind Tasting videos
wouldn't call him a professional lol. I get it was blind, but a real professional should be able to discern between the 3 in a blind tasting
Could you do a review of Chateau Picard wine?
Maybe in the future. Videos work off samples so if they ever send me some…
I would love to see a comparison between a wine closer to the price plateau in your graph ($30-$40) vs the $300.
A little easier for wines in that price point to be just as good if not better than more expensive ones (at least when drinking young, which is always a factor)
The Château Mayne Mazerolles really is good. The label makes it look like it's from Africa's Serengeti though LOL.
You are right on both counts!
During a Syrah wine tasting almost twenty years ago we tasted a cheap Chilean wine alongside, among others, Penfolds Grange, and several members of the group had the Chilean wine before the Grange 😊
The Grange was of course way too young.
I can see that as Chilean wines are very approachable young, Grange really needs age
Nice video ! For sure that’s no difference in quality between the 300 us and 100 us . What really got me in this video was that a Italian merlot should taste more old world and therefore be more easy to spot . But nowadays , with the technology , everything is starting to taste the same . This - for me - is not a good thing ! Cheers and great content .
Cheers and I always appreciate your comments
Nice review! Sounds like a screaming bargain and makes me wonder....maybe that Kirkland Gran Selezione at 18 bucks is worth a shot? Hmmmm? Maybe
Give it a shot!
I really enjoy your channel but I don't understand how you could have rated Château Mayne Mazerolles 93+ points. I just bought 3 bottles and after tasting the first bottle I would at best rate it 89 pts. BTW, I'm a pretty experienced wine taster myself with formal wine training. There's no persistency of flavor in this wine and a very short finish so can't be rated any higher than 90 pts. Interestingly Wine Enthusiast rated this wine 87 points. I don't know what Decanter was thinking.....rating a wine with such a short finish 95pts.
I get where you are coming from... I went back and tasted the wines several times and that's how they showed. Blind tasting is always funny.
For Decanter, competition scoring is different and the wines are compared to those in the same price category, so I totally can see how this showed so well against wines in that price point
@@drmatthewhorkey Maybe there's a lot of bottle variation, in which case it makes me concerned about this producer. to me the 2019 Mayne Mazerolles tasted very diluted and this is coming from someone who prefers old world wines and not heavy, over-extracted new world wines.
You could be right too for your palate! Taste is subjective
@@drmatthewhorkey I agree palate is subjective but wine judging/tasting should not be subjective if you know how to taste/judge wine. I may not like sweet wines personally but I should know how to judge them. In the AWS (American Wine Society) if one judge would score a wine 95 pts (or 18.5 pts) and another judge would score it 87 pts (or 15pts) something is wrong. Wine judges should be within 2pts of each other in 100 pt scale and within 1pt of each other in a 20 pt scale. IMHO anything beyond that, means that one judge does not have a good palate or doesn't know how to judge a wine. The whole point of professional wine training is to take the subjective palate preference out of the equations. If 2 Master of Wine would taste a wine I'm sure their scores would be pretty close regardless if they use a 20 point or 100 point scale.
Mead>>>>>>>
Honey?
ahaha. amazing…
🙏🙏👏🏼
1,300 to 1,500 for a new French oak barrique? Yikes, bring on the oak chips! (Which I have used, to good effect!)
Ahh you make wine where?
@drmatthewhorkey I'm a home winemaker; I've made Chardonnay, Cabernet and Amurensis with oak chips for either fermentation or finishing. They work well, but I use them lightly.
👍
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You suffered from self selection bias. Should have asked somebody else to buy the $16 wine
That could have worked too!
sideways is a bore hillbillies shun merlot
LOLOL although I do love Sideways