Bohemian Highway 2005 Merlot
The Nitty Gritty:
- Vintage: 2005
- Varietal: Merlot
- Winery: Bohemian Highway
- Region: Sonoma
- Country: United States
- Price: About $9
- Rating: 86/100
- Tags: best value Merlot
To be perfectly honest, I had every intention of using this as a cooking wine. I found it at the corner liquor store, adjacent to the bare bones convenience/grocery down the street from my apartment. It was going to be an easy chicken parm evening — but even with chicken parm, I insist upon making my own marinara sauce — which undoubtedly and inevitably involves at least half a bottle of wine in the sauce. Not in the chef (at least while I’m cooking).
Bohemian Highway was the only brand I didn’t recognize, so I bought two bottles at $9 each — undeniably a convenient price point. Once home and cooking, I decided, as any good chef would, to taste my cooking wine before using it.
Yowsa.
I expected a reasonable decent but kind of boring red wine; instead, I got a mouthful of berries — blackberries, specifically — with a long chocolate-leather finish. You can imagine where the other half of the bottle went.
Keep the pairings simple: aim for pizza, chicken Parmesan, or any similar Italian comfort food dish.
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By Lauren McNally
Lauren B. McNally is a New York City-based writer who spends her days on Madison Avenue and her evenings in Spain, France, Italy, South America, and beyond. She originally hails from Maine and graduated from Bowdoin College, spending time abroad at the University of Cambridge in the UK. Lauren passed The Court of Master Sommeliers’ Level I exam in August and will sit for her Certified Sommelier Exam in early 2010.
About The Humble Gourmand
The Humble Gourmand is published the first Friday of each month, edited by Alison L. McConnell, a Washington, D.C.-based journalist and writer. It is designed to offer straightforward lessons and advice to aspiring cooks, oenophiles, and all other eaters and drinkers.
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