Winemaker Notes
Rich and fleshy, this multi-layered and savory-focused expression pays homage to the great wines of Pomerol. The dark chocolate and cocoa backbone hinges a perfume of lifted black berries and cherries.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2008 Brookman Vineyard Merlot presents a deep garnet-purple color and moderately pronounced notes of macerated plums, blackberries, cloves, pencil shavings and a whiff of stewed tea. With a structure of medium-high acid and a medium-firm level of chewy tannins, it’s well balanced with the condensed full-bodied fruit, finish long.
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Wine & Spirits
This wine has a meaty, seared beef savor to its tannins. They build a substantial structure tightly framing luscious blackberry juiciness of fruit. The firm black tannins will melt into prime rib.
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.
Known for opulent red wines with intense power and concentration, McLaren Vale is home to perhaps the most “classic” style of Australian Shiraz. Vinified on its own or in Rhône Blends, these hot-climate wines are deeply colored and high in extract with signature hints of dark chocolate and licorice. Cabernet Sauvignon is also produced in a similar style.
Whites, often made from Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc tend to be opulent and full of tropical, stone and citrus fruit.