Winemaker Notes
Blend: 95% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Sauvignon
Professional Ratings
-
Wine Spectator
The San Felice 2017 Bolgheri Superiore Bell'aja is quite oaky and spicy on first nose. It is a little hard to find the fruit at its core. I kept the wine in my glass for a few hours, and the smokiness did lift to unveil the standard hot-vintage delivery of plummy black fruit and blackberry preserves. There is softness and sweetness on the close, and the wine shows some of the tannic astringency that we saw across this vintage. It works with a plate of sliced dry sausage and cheese, but on its own, this wine is almost too much.
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 outstanding wine region made famous by Marchese Mario Incisa della Rocchetta, who planted Cabernet Sauvignon vines for his own consumption in 1940s on his San Guido estate, and called the resulting wine, Sassicaia. Today the region’s Tuscan reds are based on Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, which can be made as single varietal wines or blends. The local Sangiovese can make up no more than 50% of the blends. Today Sassicaia has its own DOC designation within the Bogheri DOC appellation.