Dog House Maxie’s Merlot 2002
Price: $8
Maker: Dog House Winery, Santa Rosa, California
Varietal: Merlot
Packaging: 750 ml bottle, screw cap
Alcohol: 13.5%
Our Rating: 8.5 out of 10
How could one resist taking a bottle of Dog House Maxie’s Merlot 2002 off the shelf - would you believe, “He followed me home?” Once you get past the cute label and cute copy (for a terminal dose of cuteness and canine puns, check out Dog House Winery’s website), the wine itself proves to be no dog. The nose of this wine is superb, with the expected dark berry and spice, but with some licorice and unusual floral notes. The flavor isn’t particularly complicated, but it’s a nice balance of cherry and plum notes, oak, spice, and tannins that stimulate but don’t overwhelm.
There’s a store locator on the Dog House website, but we didn’t find it all that helpful. We did find the blend information for the 2003 Dog House Merlot, which included 76% Merlot and 22% Cabernet Sauvignon. Both Wine Enthusiast and Wine Spectator scored this wine as a “Best Buy.”
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February 12th, 2007 at 11:00 am
[...] We tried Dog House Maxie’s Merlot a week ago, and liked that wine too - perhaps a bit more, even. Still, both are highly accessible, inexpensive red wines with plenty of payback. Others have commented favorably on the Dog House Cab. The Easy Wine Drinker comments, “Nice, smooth, a bit on the sweet side for a Cab, but overall a nice, affordable bottle of juice… A good party wine / house wine.” The Naked Vine says, ‘The big blackberry jam nose on this wine gives way to a slightly oaky red with some nice background tastes of licorice. The finish is very gentle for a cabernet sauvignon — not terribly tannic with some lingering smoky flavor. Very easy to drink — the Dog House would be a good “transition cab” for people who enjoy mellower reds like merlot and are interested in giving drier wines a try.’ [...]