For Myles Anderson and Gordy Veneri, the survey of all 13 Walla Walla Vintners merlots — from 1995 to 2007 — was an opportunity to see how the wines were aging. Though they were the eighth winery to open in Walla Walla, their newly planted estate vineyard will not be in production until 2010. Up until now their merlots have been assembled from a well-chosen list of growers from around the state.

Canoe Ridge Vineyard debuted in 1992 and quickly developed an excellent reputation for its merlots, made with fruit grown at the estate vineyard in the Horse Heaven Hills. For the first decade the winemaker was John Abbott (now at Abeja); most recently Christophe Paubert has been the man in charge.

Paubert is French-born and educated; his resume includes work as cellarmaster at the famed Chateau d’Yquem, and winemaking at Chateau Gruaud-Larose in Bordeaux and Montana in New Zealand. His first vintage at Canoe Ridge was 2006, and this was his first time tasting all of the winery’s merlots at a single sitting.

Why should it matter how any wine ages? Most bottles are consumed within 24 hours of purchase, and wineries fashion wines accordingly, with bright, ripe, forward fruit, set against lush new barrel flavors and soft, pillowy tannins.

Paubert, with his Old World background, had a good answer to the question. “In the past in Bordeaux,” he explained, “the young wines were so tannic you couldn’t enjoy them without aging. It was also recognized that great vintages and great terroir could age well; so it stood for the quality of the chateau.”

He went on to point out, and I heartily agree, that one of the pleasures of wine is to see it evolving through the years. “If you have a cellar and several bottles of a certain wine, you have the pleasure of drinking it, and another pleasure, which is to see it evolving. Some food also matches better with an aged wine; when it matches well, that is magic.”

It was a happy coincidence that both wineries elected to pour their merlots within days of each other. I am regularly asked by readers which red grape I think is Washington’s best, and though I do not say it is merlot, I would happily nominate it as a strong candidate.

There are very few places in the world where merlot as a stand-alone varietal or principal blending grape has the stuffing, the power and the palate presence to command serious attention. But here in Washington, for reasons that remain mysterious, it ripens more fully, develops more complexity and simply is more expressive than almost anywhere outside of the right bank of Bordeaux.

These tastings provided ample evidence to support that notion. From a total of 36 wines — 13 from Vintners, 23 from Canoe Ridge (including eight reserve bottlings) — an aging pattern emerged. The oldest wines, from the mid-1990s, were still balanced and showed mature, soft flavors. The sweet spot was reached when the wines were eight to 10 years old; the 1999, 2000 and 2001 vintages showed especially well.

My favorites were the 1999 and 2000 merlots from Walla Walla Vintners, and the 1996, 1999 (regular bottling) and 2005 reserve from Canoe Ridge. But the real winner was Washington merlot, for which we may all be grateful.

Go home. Home, that wonderful safe place of refuge and rest; your personal asylum; that native and eternal dwelling place of the soul. It’s the shelter that holds your most prized possessions: your wine collection and the stereo. Oh — and your favorite chair.

And now, the moment of truth: which bottle of wine and what tunes do you play? Or shall you resign yourself to the music and let the “shuffl e” of the stereo or the iPod make the choice? Like food and wine pairings is there such a thing as music and wine pairings?

Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland, the eighth-oldest higher education institution in the United Kingdom, announced last year from a study that playing a certain type of music can enhance a wine’s taste. It found people rated the change in taste by up to 60 percent depending on the melody heard. The researchers said cabernet sauvignon was most affected by “powerful and heavy” music, and chardonnay by “zingy and refreshing” sounds.

They conducted supermarket research that suggested consumers were fi ve times more likely to buy French wine than German wine if accordion music was played in the background and of course, German wines outsold the French if hearty polkas from an “oompah” band were played. A university representative said the study could lead retailers to put music recommendations on their wine bottles.

John Abbott, winemaker and founder of Abeja Winery in Walla Walla, is way ahead of the researchers and feels strongly that music and wine pair together. Abbott was pairing music and wine on tasting note handouts from his early days as a winemaker for Canoe Ridge in the 1990s. Some people say they smell in color; Abbott feels he smells in music.

Abbott feels young, unrefi ned wines need tunes that are a bit more hard-edged and raw, where aged wines need more soothing and mellow music, and he leans toward soothing music as wine ages in the cellar. Abbott’s personal selection of music and wine pairings? The 2005 Abeja cabernet sauvignon, showing notes of brambleberry, shaved chocolate and lustrous tannins, with U2’s album Boy. And he prefers Dire Strait’s Espresso Love when enjoying a 2005 Abeja merlot.

Abbott says at Abeja they listen to a lot of Mark Knopfler’s guitar in the cellar and feel it helps the wines age. There are also evenings he will crack a bottle of red table wine and throw on Van Halen or Tool and let the wine and music battle it out.

In my own sanctuary and collection of wine and eclectic music, where I hide from the elements of ring tones and gab, I fi nd a bold, yet supple cabernet sauvignon with layers of black ripe fruit and cocoa is completed with Luciano Pavarotti belting out the aria, Nessun Dorma, from the final act of Puccini’s opera Turandot.

Any sultry song sung by Patsy Kline or the ’70s girl rock band Heart goes well with a locally produced merlot that shows fl avor notes of chocolate-covered cherries, nutmeg and a deep nose of autumn leaves. I play Annie Lennox’s Little Bird or Whiter Shade of Pale as I sip on a viognier with its nose of fresh pears and a long fi nish of cotton candy. A Bordeaux-style rosé? Nothing else will do but the warbling of the little French sparrow Edith Piaf.

A well-chilled, crisp and grassy-toned sauvignon blanc makes me yearn for some honky-tonk from country artist Alan Jackson. Yee-Haw! When the album Laundry Service by Colombian/Lebanese singer-songwriter-belly-dancer Shakira comes up, I have been known to reach for the zills (finger cymbals) and shake and shimmy while balancing a glass of spicy and inky-colored syrah.

Which wine pairs the best with the dark and gothic heavy-metal riffs of Brian Hugh Warner — also known as Marilyn Manson? Well — that’s a pairing I haven’t decided on — yet. Instead, I skip the wine and make a Bloody Mary. That’s when I know I have had a really bad day.