I'm Not A Connoisseur: The Velvet Devil

Rating: 50/100



The Velvet Devil. Let's see how accurate of a name that is. I wouldn't think the Devil would be velvety, but I'll wait until I meet him to make a decision. What is this? A Merlot! From 2008. This thing was put together in Washington (state), Columbia Valley to be exact. I've never been to Washington, state or our nations capital, but I'll make it to both eventually.

Well it's been sitting out for a while now, as I decided to screw around with music and video to get a whole 16 seconds worth of riveting footage. It's very dark in color, and shines more red than purple.

The "nose" isn't impressive. It smells like a shoe store, or maybe MC Sports. Does that even exist anymore? There was one a long time ago in the mall in my town, but I don't think it's there anymore. Probably not a good start. I smell a little bit of fruit, but it's not very strong. I almost spilled this shit on the desk swirling it around.

The palate, I have to say, is pretty disappointing. Very mild. This tastes like water. That makes me sad. I wouldn't expect that from a Merlot, but according to what I'm reading I should have. Wikipedia says they often have medium bodies. Not this time. The finish is short to medium, but not very impressive. It's not very acidic. It has pretty long legs though, and as beautiful as they are, they don't improve the taste. Lastly, it's really not that dry like I thought a Merlot would be.

Back to Wikipedia, it says a Washington Merlot will have deep color and balanced acidity as I supposed I amateurishly described. Now I taste strawberries. That's probably just because I saw it as a possible fruit flavor online though.

Velvet might be accurate by definition: smooth and soft. I might have been hoping for too much Devil. I'll drink it because I own it, but I won't be buying this again on my own volition. I haven't bought a Merlot in a long time, so I was definitely hoping for something better. I'm pretty sure I've had some much more flavorful. I'll give some ratings here, but take them with the largest grain of salt you can find:

Out of 5

Appearance: 4 - It was dark and pretty uniform color of red, maybe a touch of purple. This might indicate a younger wine. Check.

Aroma: 2 - Not much to it. It very lacking here, which most likely contributed to the lack in flavor.

Taste: 2 - It tasted a little better than it smelled, but they kind of go hand in hand. No much to it. It's getting better as it goes along. Very mild fruit flavors.

Finish: 2 - Again, not much to say here. Not very acidic, short finish. It didn't leave a lot to think about.

If you happened to watch my short video of a wine bottle rotating, and you liked the music, it was from The Last And by John K. Samson.