Winemaker Notes
Merlot is often thought of as Cabernet’s little sister, though we believe strongly that here in the Walla Walla Valley it produces wines capable of standing on their own merits and time has proven this. We grow Merlot on our cooler sites with slightly heavier soils. It is a wine of intensely focused fruit and silky tannins.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Perfumed aromas of violets, dried lavender, blueberries, blackberries, asphalt, cocoa powder and walnut husk. It’s full-bodied with firm, creamy tannins. Polished, velvety and caressing with a plush core of dark fruit and spices and a subtle, smoky note.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2019 Merlot is juicy and up-front, with lots of black cherry and blue fruits as well as medium to full body, ripe, soft, ultra-fine tannins, a good sense of freshness, and classic tobacco, graphite, and spice aromas and flavors. Drink this sexy beauty over the coming 10-15 years.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2019 Walla Walla Merlot is big, bold and juicy in the glass with elements of dusty leather, plum compote and spiced cherry jubilee. Full-bodied, the wine is firm with a delightful juicy core of dark red fruit that sways with cedar and cinnamon spice elements before showing firm tannins across the mid-palate. The Merlot ends with a long-lingering finish that will be sure to please lovers of generous Merlot. The wine spent 15 months in a mix of new and once filled French barrels and neutral botti. Just over 22,000 bottles produced.
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Wine Spectator
Tightly focused and well-built, with red currant, pencil lead and black olive flavors that gather tension toward refined tannins.
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.
Responsible for some of Washington’s most highly acclaimed wines, the Walla Walla Valley has experienced a surge in popularity in recent years and is home to both historic wineries and younger, up-and-coming producers.
The Walla Walla Valley, a Native American name meaning “many waters,” is located in southeastern Washington; part of the appellation actually extends into Oregon. Soils here are well-drained, sandy loess over Missoula Flood deposits and fractured basalt.
It is a region perfectly suited to Rhône-inspired Syrahs, distinguished by savory notes of red berry, black olive, smoke and fresh earth. Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot create a range of styles from smooth and supple to robust and well-structured. White varieties are rare but some producers blend Sauvignon Blanc with Sémillon, resulting in a rich and round style, and plantings of Viognier, while minimal, are often quite successful.
Of note within Walla Walla, is one new and very peculiar appellation, called the Rocks District of Milton-Freewater. This is the only AVA in the U.S. whose boundaries are totally defined by the soil type. Soils here look a bit like those in the acclaimed Rhône region of Chateauneuf-du-Pape, but are large, ancient, basalt cobblestones. These stones work in the same way as they do in Chateauneuf, absorbing and then radiating the sun's heat up to enhance the ripening of grape clusters. The Rocks District is within the part of Walla Walla that spills over into Oregon and naturally excels in the production of Rhône varieties like Syrah, as well as the Bordeaux varieties.