Northstar Walla Walla Merlot 2003
-
Robert
Parker -
Wine
Spectator
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Dusty malt, dried herbs and bright cherry flavors are balanced well into this smoothly-structured wine that concludes with a supple, lingering finish.
Professional Ratings
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
I loved Northstar’s 2003 Merlot Walla Walla Valley (2,500 cases). Containing 12% Cabernet Sauvignon and 4% Cabernet Franc, this is a medium to full-bodied effort with delightful black cherry, spice, and sage aromas. A sappy, concentrated, seamless wine, it is velvety-textured, intensely flavorful, and lush. Layered with black cherries, blackberries, spices, and raspberries, this is a broad, engaging offering to be drunk over the next 8-9 years.
-
Wine Spectator
Broad and open, graceful not heavy, packed with licorice-scented currant and black pepper flavors, finishing with a smoky note as the fruit persists. Best from 2007 through 2013.
Other Vintages
2001-
Wine &
Spirits -
Wine
Enthusiast
Northstar, located in Walla Walla, Washington, aims to make Merlots that can be considered among the world's best, using fruit sourced from one of the world's best regions for the variety: Washington state. Winemaker, David "Merf" Merfeld, blends New World fruit with an old world winemaking style, influenced by Bordeaux's "right bank," to create his highly-acclaimed wines. Northstar produces two Merlot-based wines from the Columbia Valley and Walla Walla AVAs, as well as the Stella Maris red blend and extremely limited production bottlings of the blending component varieties that Merf uses as his "spice box" in creating Northstar's Merlots.
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.
A large and geographically diverse AVA capable of producing a wide variety of wine styles, the Columbia Valley AVA is home to 99% of Washington state’s total vineyard area. A small section of the AVA even extends into northern Oregon!
Because of its size, it is necessarily divided into several distinctive sub-AVAs, including Walla Walla Valley and Yakima Valley—which are both further split into smaller, noteworthy appellations. A region this size will of course have varied microclimates, but on the whole it experiences extreme winters and long, hot, dry summers. Frost is a common risk during winter and spring. The towering Cascade mountain range creates a rain shadow, keeping the valley relatively rain-free throughout the entire year, necessitating irrigation from the Columbia River. The lack of humidity combined with sandy soils allows for vines to be grown on their own rootstock, as phylloxera is not a serious concern.
Red wines make up the majority of production in the Columbia Valley. Cabernet Sauvignon is the dominant variety here, where it produces wines with a pleasant balance of dark fruit and herbs. Wines made from Merlot are typically supple, with sweet red fruit and sometimes a hint of chocolate or mint. Syrah tends to be savory and Old-World-leaning, with a wide range of possible fruit flavors and plenty of spice. The most planted white varieties are Chardonnay and Riesling. These range in style from citrus and green apple dominant in cooler sites, to riper, fleshier wines with stone fruit flavors coming from the warmer vineyards.