Winemaker Notes
Blend: 40% Merlot, 32% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Cabernet Franc, 8% Petit Verdot
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Checking in as a final blend of 40% Merlot, 32% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Cabernet Franc, and 8% Petit Verdot, the 2017 Fenix reveals a saturated purple color as well as sexy notes of black cherries, currants, ground herbs, chocolate, and earth. Ripe, fleshy, full-bodied, and loaded with fruit, it still shows the vintage’s more elegant, classic style. It's a beautiful, sexy wine that does everything right.
One of the world’s most classic and popular styles of red wine, Bordeaux-inspired blends have spread from their homeland in France to nearly every corner of the New World. Typically based on either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, the best of these are densely hued, fragrant, full of fruit and boast a structure that begs for cellar time. Somm Secret—Blends from Bordeaux are generally earthier compared to those from the New World, which tend to be fruit-dominant.
Accounting for only ten percent of the greater Santa Ynez AVA, Ballard Canyon’s north-south orientation provides an ideal pattern of sunshine and martime fog for producing excellent Syrah. While Syrah is planted to half of the total AVA acreage, an additional third is dedicated to other Rhône varieties, red and white.