Frog's Leap Merlot (1.5 Liter Magnum) 2013
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
The 2013 Frog's Leap Merlot is not your Campbell's soup production-line, predictable example of this grape variety. While most folks in the wine world visualize Merlot as soft, plump, and user-friendly, proprietor John Williams sees it differently and gives the grape its due respect. This wine exhibits great density and range of flavors—red fruit, soft dust, rich earth—and finishes with formidable firmness. Drinks nicely now and will develop further with bottle age. (Tasted: September 28, 2016, San Francisco, CA)
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Wine Enthusiast
There's a healthy 17% Cabernet Sauvignon and 1% Cabernet Franc in this wine, which is classically structured in red fruit, soft oak and peppery spice. Its cedar notes speak to the Cab within, while the overall texture and breadth of the wine is lengthy, food-ready and impressive.
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Frog's Leap is a family-owned winery dedicated to sustainable principles and committed to producing wines with balance, restraint and respect for terroir. Frog's Leap makes its home amongst 200 acres of vineyards in Rutherford at the historic ‘Red Barn’. Founded by John Williams in 1981, Frog’s Leap continues to be family-owned and operated. As the owner and winemaker, John has made every vintage for over four decades. Frog’s Leap has earned an enviable reputation for our sincere dedication to sustainable principles and our commitment to handcrafting wines. This noted ‘ghost winery’ was built in 1884 as the Adamson Winery and renovated in 1994 as Frog's Leap's permanent home. A handsome bi-level barrel chai completes the state-of-the-art winemaking facility and guests are received in the warm and welcoming LEED-certified hospitality center.
Now in its fourth decade of production, Winemakers John and Rory Williams hand-craft Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Zinfandel, Merlot, and an Estate-Grown Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon. Using the best of Napa Valley's organically grown, dry- farmed grapes and the most traditional winemaking techniques, Frog's Leap strives to produce wines that deeply reflect the soils and climate from which they emanate. Thoughtfully shepherding both natural and earned resources, Frog’s Leap consistently returns more than it takes from the environment.
First certified by California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF) in 1988 Frog's Leap has been a leader in the industry for decades. Fundamentally, organic farming means that if you take from the soil, you must return to the soil in equal measure. In the case of regenerative farming – a practice firmly embraced by Frog's Leap – you must return to the soil in greater measure than you take. Using a traditional approach to winemaking Frog’s Leap’s intention is to craft wines that are deeply reflective of the influences from which they emanate. Frog’s Leap makes wine of balance and restraint, with respect for the natural expression of the vine. The winery relies on techniques such as crop rotation, green manure, compost and biological pest control to maintain soil productivity and control pests on a farm. Organic farming excludes the use of manufactured fertilizers and pesticides, plant growth regulators and genetically modified organisms. Organic farming involves mechanical weed control (via cultivating or hoeing) rather than herbicidal weed control.
Frog's Leap presents a relaxed approach to enjoying wine. An easy hospitality and warm sense of humor is juxtaposed with a more serious sensibility when making wine. The wines produced range from Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay to Zinfandel and Sauvignon Blanc. The winery has quite the line up to offer and hope you’ll try one of these delicious wines that harmoniously combine quality, sustainability and value.
With generous fruit and supple tannins, Merlot is made in a range of styles from everyday-drinking to world-renowned and age-worthy. Merlot is the dominant variety in the wines from Bordeaux’s Right Bank regions of St. Emilion and Pomerol, where it is often blended with Cabernet Franc to spectacular result. Merlot also frequently shines on its own, particularly in California’s Napa Valley. Somm Secret—As much as Miles derided the variety in the 2004 film, Sideways, his prized 1961 Château Cheval Blanc is actually a blend of Merlot and Cabernet Franc.
The Rutherford sub-region of Napa Valley centers on the town of Rutherford and covers some of Napa Valley’s finest vineyard real estate, spanning from the Mayacamas in the west, to the Vaca Mountains on the other side of the valley.
Inside of the Rutherford AVA, bordering the Mayacamas, is a stretch of uplands called the Rutherford Bench. (These bench lands technically run the length of Oakville as well). Mountain runoff creates deep, well-drained, alluvial soils on the bench, giving vine roots plenty of reason to permeate deep into the ground. The result is wine with great structure and complexity.
Rutherford Cabernet Sauvingons and Bordeaux Blends garner substantial attention for their enticing fragrances of dusty earth and dried herbs, broad and juicy mid-palates and lush and fine-grained tannins. The sub-appellation claims some of the valley’s most prized vineyards today, namely Caymus, Rubicon and Beckstoffer Georges III.
It is also home to Napa’s most influential and historic personalities. Thomas Rutherford, responsible for the appellation's name, made serious investments here in grape growing and wine production between the years of 1850 to 1880. Gustave Niebaum purchased a large swath of land and completed his winery in 1887, calling it “Inglenook.” Today this remains the oldest bonded winery in California. Georges Latour founded Beaulieu Vineyard in 1900, making it the oldest continuous winery in the state. Latour also hired the famous enologist, André Tchelistcheff, a man credited for single-handedly defining the modern Napa winemaking style.