Yes, this seems like an odd choice for the Wine Curmudgeon, even for the expensive wine feature. It's a California merlot made, more or less, by the same people who make Silver Oak, which is a grape and a style of wine I'm not especially fond of. But, as I always insist, one should not judge the wine until after one tastes it.
And the Twomey ($40, sample) is very much worth tasting. I don't know that it's quite the French-style wine that the tasting notes say it is; it tastes very Napa Valley, though without many of the excesses that other wines of this kind have. How else do I know this? Many comments on CellarTracker for the Twomey are particularly vehement (and not fit for a family blog like this), criticizing the wine for not being big and over the top enough. There is even a plea for CellarTracker users to unite and overthrow the tyranny of wine critics, since the latter were so wrong about this wine. And, apparently, many retailers have been heavily discounting this vintage.
Otherwise, the Twomey features beautiful fruit made in the Silver Oak style -- soft, rich and velvety. The longer the wine sits open, the more the parts come out, and the parts are impressive, mostly equal parts oak, chocolate, and red fruit. Let this sit for 20 or 30 minutes before you drink it, and pair with it with beef and anything with red wine sauces.
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