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Wine Recommendation
South Coast Winery
2003 Merlot(South Coast)
Owner/Vintner Jim Carter purchased this 400 acre estate in 1981 after a trip to the region with his father, who encouraged him to make the investment. He then built Temecula Wine Country’s first winery resort. The spa offers grape seed treatments like those offered at Le Sources de Caudalie Spa in Bordeaux -- grape seed polyphenols contain high levels of antioxidants and provide a barrier against free radicals.
With grapes grown in Temecula and in the South Coast appellations, Jim, along with Master Winemaker Jon McPherson and Winemaker Javier Flores, turns out close to 50,000 cases per year.
Soaking in a tub of this spicy, warm-origin Merlot is one thing (at a wine spa in Salta, Argentina I sat in a tepid Merlot bath and got no pleasure out of it at all, especially since the large glass windows with views of the vineyards also meant that the workers in the fields could look right in) but I’d rather drink it. It has aromas of
stewed fruits, cassis, cranberry, mulberry, cerise, black pepper, and white pepper, is smooth and supple on the palate with dark berry, cranberry, damson fruit and baking spice plus cedar and maple, and has a slightly chewy, grapey finish.
Reviewed January 16, 2007 by Catherine Fallis.
Other reviewed wines from South Coast Winery
 2003 Syrah, Rolling Hills Estate Vineyard (Temecula Valley)Catherine Fallis 1/16/2007 |
The Wine
Winery: South Coast Winery |
The Reviewer
Catherine Fallis
Founder and President of Planet Grape LLC, a company committed to bringing the joy of wine, food, and good living into the lives of everyday people, Catherine is creator of the “grape goddess guides to good living,” a series of books, television presentations, seminars, and e-learning programs. The fifth woman in the world to become a Master Sommelier, grape goddess Catherine Fallis is still very much down-to-earth. |