Late-night happy hours (sometimes called “reverse” happy hours) are superior to regular happy hours in every way. Urban drink-seekers know this.
Instead of jumping into rush-hour traffic to (hopefully) find a barstool and catch a server’s attention before the clock strikes 6 PM, you get to slow down. You can finish your daily work and errands, enjoy dinner and a show. Then you top off your night with a glass of wine and some fried food for like, under ten bucks.
Backhouse California Merlot (appropriately named, because reverse happy hours are popular with industry folks) is the pour of the night. I’m at Lazy Dog–a chain not known for its wine list, but for its gourmet-coded comfort food and its cheesy Rocky Mountain lodge-style atmosphere. Happy hour is 9 to 11. I get the Merlot ($3) and the Lemon Pepper Tater Tots with house-made buttermilk ranch ($4).
It’s a semi-translucent purple-red. On the first sniff: Amarena cherries and stewed red plums. The nose is thin and bitter–light brewed coffee and chicory, with some herbal aromas of cocktail bitters and orange peel. There’s a reductive sulfur note that stands in the way of the already modest fruit.
Backhouse Merlot is dry and medium-bodied with high alcohol and a slightly aggressive sour-cherry tartness in the mouth. It finishes short, with a trace of meat, green herbs (basil), and sour plums.
This is not a wine that I’d order again. But it fit the food and the moment. After all, if you’re not happy at happy hour, then when are you going to be happy?
Bottle: Backhouse California Merlot (2023)
Variety: Merlot
ABV: 14%
Suggested retail: $9.99
My rating: 6.9 (out of 10)
Review disclosure: I was not compensated or provided any free products for this review. Opinions expressed on The Wine Fairy blog are entirely my own.
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