Wine Spectator vs. Gary Vaynerchuk: The 2005 Paso Creek Merlot

I'm a big fan of the daily video wine blog Wine Library TV so when Gary Vaynerchuk came out with his first book, 101 WinesI read it with interest. The book is basically like Wine Spectator's Annual Top 100 list but Gary paid special attention to recommending wines that would expand our horizons -and- wines that are readily available.

One of the wines that jumped out at me was the 2005 Paso Creek Merlot. I remembered it because Gary described it as being delicious and approachable -and- it is affordable. Wine Specatator, on the other hand, gave the wine a very poor review. In an effort to see whose ratings are more aligned with my tastes I tasted the wine and captured the following video:



Here is what the label for the wine featured in today's review, the 2005 Paso Creek Merlot, looks like:

Here is my corkd.com review of the 2005 Paso Creek Merlot:

2005 Paso Creek Merlot 87 WWP/$18

Here are my corkd.com reviews of the 2003 and 2005 Columbia Crest Merlot (92 and 90 points WWP respectively):

2003 Columbia Crest Grand Estates Merlot 92 WWP/$11
2005 Columbia Crest Grand Estates Merlot 89/90WWP/$11

Here is a link to the latest episode of Wine Library TV. Highly recommended- best source of wine information on the Internet!

And here is a link to Gary's book:

Question of the Day: What is *your* current most trusted source of wine reviews?