Máté Mantus Merlot 2007, Tuscany Italy ($29.99)
Not content with his success as a writer, photographer, and ship builder (which he of course wrote about very successfully), around ten years ago Ferenc Máté turned his hand to making wine.
After sailing around the Pacific with his wife Candace in the boat they built, the couple finally chose to settle down in Tuscany, Italy. To begin with Ferenc renovated a beautiful 13th Century Friary nestled in the hill of Montalcino and then set about building a winery and growing vines on the surrounding land.
With the help of Fabrizio Moltard, agronomist to Angelo Gaja, Ferenc chose grape varieties that suited each field of the small, 15-acre estate. Mate Winery makes a variety of remarkable wines, with their Brunello at the apex, reaching sensual heights. They also make a few “international” varietals, including a Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, and Merlot.
I took home a bottle of the Merlot last week and was thoroughly impressed. If there is anyone out there who turns their nose up at Merlot, this is a wine to persuade them otherwise. The soft plum and sumptuous dark fruit on the nose are more akin to a Pomerol than any other Merlot I have tried.
Like Pomerol, Ferenc grows his Merlot in plots where the soil has a high proportion of clay. The combined facts that Merlot is happy to have wet feet and needs long warm days and cool evenings to ripen, explains why it works so well here. Montalcino enjoys a warmer, more arid climate than Chianti zones to the north, receiving several inches less rainfall every year. With less rainfall the roots stays well irrigated by the highly absorbent clay soil throughout the ripening period.
This wine would work well with any number of rich tasty dishes. I tasted it alongside a Burger from Five Guys, and although it probably isn’t a food match normally associated with fine wine, the result was sensational.
Felix Milner
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