Winemaker Notes
Pair with mushroom risotto and seared Ahi.
Professional Ratings
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2017 Clos LaChance Estate Vineyards Merlot drinks firm, yet smoothly. TASTING NOTES: This wine offers aromas and flavors of blackberries, earth, and oak. Enjoy it with grilled lamb chops. (Tasted: October 10, 2021, San Francisco, CA)
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.
Home to some of California’s most influential winemaking pioneers of the late 1800s, Paul Masson and Charles Lefranc, the Santa Clara Valley AVA hugs up against the southwestern border of today’s famous Silicon Valley and excels in the production of bold reds, as well as some whites.