WTN: 2008 Pasqua Villa Borghetti Passimento

$11.95 on general list at the LCBO. Solid natural cork closure. Blend of Corvina, Croatina and Merlot.

14% alc./vol. Attractive, crimson-ruby colour, with a solid crimson core. It needed some time to open up, but once it did, it showed a "signature Italian" nose of red fruits and plenty of spice. Crisp and tense on the entry, with a bright, acid-driven structure; good grippiness on the mid-palate, with broad alcoholic warmth kicking in on the aft palate and lasting into the warm, spicy, dry finish. At once tart, peppery, and grippy - all with a clean, spicy finish.

Although there's Merlot in the blend, you'd never know: the wine isn't plush or flabby in the least. Maybe Merlot is simply different when grown in Italy?

This went very well, both with grilled pork chops and with fried veal liver. It's versatile, and appetizing, and IMO punches well above its price point.

Although there's Merlot in the blend, you'd never know - the wine isn't plush or flabby in the least. Maybe Merlot is simply different when grown in Italy?

It's different everywhere it's grown!

And before dismissing it as 'plush' and 'flabby' we should remember that there's a good reason it's one of the core Bordeaux grapes. Clearly it helps round out the other varieties but it also makes some pretty good wines in the process.

In Ontario, Merlot actually makes some decent medium-bodied table wines . . . in years when it isn't suffering from winter kill, of course.

Usually there's a dusty, plush character to it all the same, and this is true even if the structure is lean and the finish is short.

Funny, but I just don't "sense" the Merlot in this Italian blend. I have no doubt that it's there; it's just that I don't get the typical characteristics that I have come to associate with the variety.

What Rahsaan said.

Merlot grown in northern Italy can have lots of different faces. If this is from the Valpolicella/Bardolino area it can have an entirely different face from that grown in the Piave or the Colli Euganea, which are distinctly different places.

Oft times Merlot from the Veneto, according to where/how it's grown, can be on the herbal if not downright weedy side, with tight streaks of green acidity. And "plush" is not a word I'd use to describe many of them. On the other hand, any wine can be made to appear so, given the right treatment.

I think your idea of what Merlot is supposed to be is largely conditioned by what you've been led to believe Merlot is supposed to be, Paul.