90 Points - Wine Enthusiast
This is a Cabernet lover’s Merlot! Rich concentrated with black fruit, cherries, licorice, baked plum, graham cracker and coffee are wrapped in a velvety texture that make your taste buds ask for more! Full bodied and ripe, it offers a balanced oak nuance and a soft texture that speaks to its varietal character. The perfect partner with beef tenderloin, rack of lamb, duck and barbecued pork. Highly recommended!
Vintage: The growing season started out with warm temperatures in the late winter and early spring, triggering an early bud break. Colder temperatures in May slowed grape development resulting in a smaller crop in 2015. The harvest was one of their earliest in memory with the berries smaller than usual but packed with flavor and color.
Vineyard: Their Merlot is grown both in cooler American Canyon and Carneros vineyards and in their warmer Yountville vineyard. They blended Merlot from all three vineyards to create a balanced, robust wine that combines the richness and depth from the warmer climates and perfume and bright fruitiness from the cooler climates. Committed to natural winegrowing and sustainability, farmed from five estate vineyards without artificial fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides and certified organic.
Varietal: 100% Merlot
Appellation: Napa Valley Estate
Harvest date: Sept. 10 - Oct. 16, 2015
Sugar: 24.7 Brix (average)
Fermentation: Indigenous yeast
Skin Contact: 2 weeks in stainless steel
Total acid: 6.0 g/L
pH: 3.57
Aging: 18 months
Type of oak: French oak barrels; 20% new, 80% neutral
Bottling date: March 28, 2017
Release date: Spring 2019
93 Points, Wine Enthusiast
Dark fruit aromas of black raspberry, blackberry and black cherry steer the aromatics backed by baking spices, anise and lavender. A touch of Syrah to add tannin and depth. On the palate, black cherry and blackberry preserve shine through rounded out by herbs de Provence, dark chocolate and vanilla. A gorgeous expressive wine!
93 Points, Wine Enthusiast
Polished and elegantly layered Grenache, Mourvèdre and Syrah offers red plum and black cherry, with hints of cigar box, forest floor, bay, baking spices, light pepper and vanilla on the nose. Expressive black raspberry, sassafras and smoky pepper flavors that linger with salted dark chocolate, red plum, cherry with notes of pepper on the palate.
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