Winemaker Notes
Blend: 92% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Sauvignon, 2% Cabernet Franc, 2% Malbec
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
With small additions of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc, this savory, well-made wine is robust in dried herb, tobacco, tar and earth, with notes of sage beckoning in the background. A black cherry flavor complements the moderate tannin and oak accents.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Another wine with a Bordeaux vibe, the deep ruby/purple-hued 2018 Merlot Sonoma Valley offers up a juicy, medium-bodied, nicely balanced style as well as ample black cherry, currants, cedary oak, and leafy herb aromas and flavors. It has some chewy tannins and should benefit from a year or two of bottle age.
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.
Perhaps the most historically significant appellation in Sonoma County, the Sonoma Valley is home to both Buena Vista winery, California's oldest commercial winery, and Gundlach Bundschu winery, California's oldest family-run winery.
It is also one of the more geologically and climactically diverse districts. The valley includes and overlaps four distinct Sonoma County sub-appellations, including Carneros, Moon Mountain District, Sonoma Mountain and Bennett Valley. With mountains, benchlands, plains, abundant sunshine and the cooling effects of the nearby Pacific, this appellation can successfully produce a wide range of grape varieties. Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Gewürztraminer, and most notably, Zinfandel all thrive here. Ancient Zinfandel vines over 100 years old produce small crops of concentrated, spicy fruit, which in turn make some of the Valley's most unique wines. These can also be made as “field blends” (wines made from a mix of grape varieties grown in the same vineyard) along with Petite Sirah, Carignan and Alicante Bouschet.