2012 Seven Hills Walla Walla Merlot

Holy Moley!  I am exhausted and I think I'm coming down with a cold!  First the exhaustion, which comes from helping the kids I hired to clear the leaves from my yard (have I mentioned I have a lot of leaves?).  Yesterday my iphone counted over 15,000 steps and today as I type this I'm up to 16,132 steps!  What the heck kind of employer am I?  I should have been napping while they did the leaves!  So after working in the cold the last two days as well as drinking beer in my friend's cold garage in celebration of his 30th birthday on Friday night, it's a recipe for illness!  But at least tonight I'm feeling up to opening a bottle of wine, and tonight's is a favorite, the 2012 Seven Hills Walla Walla Merlot!

The wine is a deep ruby color in the glass with great clarity.  The nose is a nice array of licorice, leather and a hint of Asian spice.  The taste is a burst of fruit up front, plum, black cherry and a hint of cocoa powder, which transitions to some nice minerality midpalate.  The tannins are still a bit young, but very well integrated, supporting a long, velvety smooth dry finish.

Overall I would rate this wine a solid 8, it's an incredibly pleasant bottle right now, but it's sure to age well for another five years or more.  Now that I have a bit of my appetite back, tonight I am enjoying this wine with a rare grilled Hereford T-bone steak from my favorite local butcher, along with a backed potato and some steamed asparagus.  What goes better with Merlot than a nice steak?  Cheers!