Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
I like the tar and bark undertones to the blackberry fruit. Some orange peel fragrance. It’s bright and lively with a full body, ripe tannins and excellent freshness.
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Decanter
Vibrant and ripe, berry fruit and creamy herbaceous oak, with baking spices, cloves, and an emerging tobacco leaf note. Elegant, with lean yet balanced chalky tannins, refreshing acidity, and good complexity.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Black cherries, leafy herbs, leather, and some earthy notes all emerge from the 2021 Merlot Columbia Valley, a plump, rounded, medium-bodied Merlot that has outstanding balance as well as length.
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Vinous
Dusty dried flowers, lavender and wild blueberries form an inviting bouquet as the 2021 Merlot Columbia Valley opens in the glass. This is juicy and plump with ripe wild berry fruits and sweet spices accelerated by racy acidity. The 2021 finishes with admirable length and concentration as framing tannins and hints of blackberry preserves linger.
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.
A large and geographically diverse AVA capable of producing a wide variety of wine styles, the Columbia Valley AVA is home to 99% of Washington state’s total vineyard area. A small section of the AVA even extends into northern Oregon!
Because of its size, it is necessarily divided into several distinctive sub-AVAs, including Walla Walla Valley and Yakima Valley—which are both further split into smaller, noteworthy appellations. A region this size will of course have varied microclimates, but on the whole it experiences extreme winters and long, hot, dry summers. Frost is a common risk during winter and spring. The towering Cascade mountain range creates a rain shadow, keeping the valley relatively rain-free throughout the entire year, necessitating irrigation from the Columbia River. The lack of humidity combined with sandy soils allows for vines to be grown on their own rootstock, as phylloxera is not a serious concern.
Red wines make up the majority of production in the Columbia Valley. Cabernet Sauvignon is the dominant variety here, where it produces wines with a pleasant balance of dark fruit and herbs. Wines made from Merlot are typically supple, with sweet red fruit and sometimes a hint of chocolate or mint. Syrah tends to be savory and Old-World-leaning, with a wide range of possible fruit flavors and plenty of spice. The most planted white varieties are Chardonnay and Riesling. These range in style from citrus and green apple dominant in cooler sites, to riper, fleshier wines with stone fruit flavors coming from the warmer vineyards.