Winemaker Notes
A generous nose loaded with ripe plum is layered with complex baking spice, earth, and rose aromas. In the glass, plum hues introduce fresh strawberry flavors on the palate, which opens onto a moderate body with powdery tannins and fresh acidity. Next, layers of rhubarb, black pepper, and cloves mingle with savory undertones of sage and olive, which continue to evolve throughout a length
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
Gorgeous blueberries, dried violets, and spice aromatics introduce this estate-grown Merlot, assembled from vineyards throughout the Columbia Valley, including sites in the Red Mountain, Walla Walla Valley, and White Bluffs AVAs. Spiced blue and black fruits, ripe black plums, exotic spices, and redolent desert scrub savoury character buoy the ripe fruited intensity.
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Wine Spectator
Deft and elegant, with medium-bodied cherry and currant flavors that take on tobacco and spice accents on the way to refined tannins. Drink now through 2032.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2022 Merlot offers a nice nose of baked plum, cinnamon, and clove before leading the way to a full-bodied core of fruit intensity that's creamy in texture, supported by soft, supple tannins. The finish is marked by a taste of vanilla oak.
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.
An important winegrowing state increasingly recognized for its high-quality reds and whites, Washington ranks second in production in the U.S. after California. Washington wines continue to gain well-deserved popularity as they garner higher and higher praise from critics and consumers alike.
Washington winemakers draw inspiration mainly from Napa Valley, Bordeaux and the Rhône as well as increasingly from other regions like Spain and Italy. Most viticulture takes place on the eastern side of the state—an arid desert in the rain shadow of the Cascade mountains. Irrigation is made possible by the Columbia River. Temperatures are extreme, with hot and dry summers and cold winters, during which frost can be a risk.
Washington’s wine industry was initially built on Merlot, which remains an important variety to this day, despite having been overtaken in acreage planted by Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah. Bordeaux blends and Rhône blends are common as well as single varietal bottlings. Washington reds tend to express a real purity of concentrated fruit. The best examples have a bold richness, seamless texture, plush or powdery tannins and flavors such as licorice, herb, forest floor, espresso and dark chocolate.
In terms of white wine from Washington state, Riesling is the state’s major success story, producing crisp, aromatic examples with plenty of stone fruit that range from bone dry to lusciously sweet. Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc perform nicely here as well, and Viognier is beginning to pick up steam.