Substance Vineyard Collection Northridge Merlot 2016
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Jeb
Dunnuck -
James
Suckling -
Robert
Parker -
Wine
Spectator
Product Details
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Winemaker Notes
The 2016 vintage started early and warm in Washington State. When summer arrived, the season saw cooler evenings that helped retain acidity, extended the growing and ripening period into September and October. This allowed the fruit to gain more complexity and deeper charm without sacrificing the acid or producing higher alcohol content. The vintage has created deeply rich and focused wines that you will be able to enjoy for a long time.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
In the running for the best Merlot in the state, the 2016 Merlot Northridge Vineyard Collection boasts a deep ruby/purple color as well as a head-turning bouquet of black cherries, black currants, cedary spice, and dried flowers. Ripe, sexy, and full-bodied on the palate, it has a great mid-palate and sweet tannins. It’s loaded with character and is another brilliant wine from this team.
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James Suckling
Quite ethereal, leafy aromas with ripe red plums and raspberries that sit fresh and sweetly ripe on the nose. The palate has a very plush, alluringly fleshy feel with supple tannins that release smooth, plush fruit. Impressive. Drink across the next five years.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 Merlot Northridge Vineyard has a juicy core of fruit that is open-knit and accessible with spicy plum tones and elegant oak spices of vanilla, nutmeg and cinnamon. The wine is medium to full-bodied and rich on the palate, with a liveliness about the mid-palate that shows precision and a balanced structure. The finish is long, contemplative and a bit oaky, wearing the 50% new French oak well. Only 509 cases produced.
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Wine Spectator
Shows structure and polish, with currant, tomato leaf and espresso accents that finish with sleek tannins. Drink now through 2024.
Other Vintages
2017-
Jeb
Dunnuck -
James
Suckling
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Robert
Parker -
Jeb
Dunnuck
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Robert
Parker
The original thought was to be a one wine brand, with a single minded vision to produce the best value-priced Cabernet Sauvignon in America. How do you go about this? Traditional winemaking. Natural fermentations. Barrel-aging. Plus, bottling unfiltered and unfined. In essence, making the wines in small batch winemaking integrity, but doing so on a larger scale. The wine is black. The label definitively says, "This is Cabernet Sauvignon." With the CS, you know who made this wine: Charles Smith. There is also the single vineyard, single expression, Bordeaux varietals (ex: Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot) produced in very limited quantities. Let's not to forget, the single vineyard Loire-style Substance Sauvignon Blanc. Wines of Substance illustrates Charles’ philosophy of producing exceptional wines to be enjoyed by everyone around the globe.
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.
Distinguished by a broad, south-exposed, uniform slope and landlocked by the Columbia River to its south and Saddle Mountains to its north, the Wahluke Slope AVA of Washington holds 15% of the total vine acreage of the state and takes its name from the Native American word for “watering place.”
Incidentally the Wahluke Slope AVA has one of the hottest and driest climates of the state so irrigation is not only essential, but also allows complete grower control of vine vigor. On top of its arid and warm environment, strong summer winds blow across this broad slope and ensure both smaller leaf size and grape clusters. The result is top quality wines with great concentration, phenolic ripeness, body and depth of flavor.
Vineyards cover the AVA from 425 to 1,480 feet along the slope. Its deep soils of wind-blown alluvium and sand with a depth, on average, of more than 5 feet along the continuous grade allow optimal drainage for the vines.
Thriving varieties include Merlot, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Riesling, Chardonnay and Chenin Blanc.
Merlots are rich in sweet, ripe cherry, red currant, raspberry and cocoa. Syrahs tend to express black and blue fruit along with savory notes. Wahluke Cabernets are rich in stewed red and black berries.