Winemaker Notes
An opulent wine with a core of dark cherry aromas and ripe blackberry flavors framed by notes of bittersweet chocolate and a pleasant hint of graphite. Seamless and well-textured with a lush mouthfeel from entry to mid-palate that carries across a lengthy finish.
Blend: 75% Merlot, 21% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Malbec
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2019 Merlot Pedestal (75% Merlot, 21% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 4% Malbec) is terrific, with a plump, round, medium to full-bodied style offering decadent Merlot red and black cherry fruit as well as notes of tobacco leaf, damp earth, and spicey aromas and flavors. It shows the cooler style of the vintage with its elegant, streamlined texture, is perfectly balanced, and will certainly keep for 10-15 years.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2019 Pedestal Merlot was made with 21% Cabernet Sauvignon and 4% Malbec. The nose opens with a firm backbone of fresh and ripe black plums and dark cherries before delightful oaky essences sway from the glass with notions of baked earth. Full-bodied, the palate offers a firm mouthfeel that lifts with time to reveal a succulent tannic edge and juicy flavors of spiced plums and blackberry skin with brown baking spices, vanilla and nutmeg that resonate with vibrancy and power. The wine continues to evolve and reveal elegant complexities before ending with a long spicy finish with delightful oak tones. Just under 32,000 bottles were filled after the wine rested for 22 months in all French oak, 86% new barrels.
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Vinous
The 2019 Merlot Pedestal is darkly alluring with dusty blue-toned florals, wild berries, lavender and just a hint of mocha. This flows across the palate like pure silk, elegant and refined, yet youthfully sleek, displaying floral-laced blue fruits. Its minerality comes through in the finish, mingling with fine tannins to warn the taster the 2019 will take a number of years to come fully into balance. This is such an incredibly pretty vintage of Pedestal. It's a blend of 75% Merlot, 21% Cabernet Sauvignon and 4% Malbec produced through a collaboration between Michele Roland and winemaker, Gilles Nicault.
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Wine Spectator
Gutsy yet refined, this red balances a broad-shouldered structure with rich, multilayered flavors of blackberry and currant. Offers accents of licorice and espresso while building tension toward big yet balanced tannins. Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec. Drink now through 2030. 2,615 cases made.
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James Suckling
Blackberry, black cherry, charcoal and toasted herbs on the nose. Full-bodied with chewy tannins. Chocolate and crushed black fruit mix on the palate. Well structured and layered. Best after 2024.
Long Shadows Vintners is a collection of seven ultra-premium wines, each built on the unique expertise of some of the world's most highly-regarded winemakers to showcase the viticultural quality and caliber of Washington State's Columbia Valley.
Founded by Washington wine visionary Allen Shoup in 2002, Long Shadows is the continuation of Allen's ongoing ambition to bring international recognition to the Columbia Valley. His idea for Long Shadows was as simple as it was complex. Recruit seven internationally acclaimed winemakers; give each access to Washington State's best grapes; and outfit a winery to the vintner’s exacting cellar specifications. The result, in effect, is seven stand-alone wineries, under one roof.
Since the beginning, Long Shadows' director of winemaking and viticulture Gilles Nicault, has overseen the operations of the winery and worked closely with the vintners to bring each winemaker's vision to completion. Internationally renowned winemakers Randy Dunn (Feather Cabernet Sauvignon); John Duval (Sequel Syrah); Philippe Melka (Pirouette Red Wine); and Michel Rolland (Pedestal Merlot) are active partners in their respective wines. Gilles now crafts Poet’s Leap Riesling and Saggi (Sangiovese/Cabernet Sauvignon) in styles that remain true to their original winemakers, Armin Diel and Giovanni Folonari respectively. Gilles crafts Chester-Kidder, a Cabernet Sauvignon/Syrah blend, independently.
Gilles works closely with the state's top growers to execute a diverse winemaking protocol at Long Shadows' state-of-the-art facility in Walla Walla to produce wines of exceptional quality, true to the Columbia Valley's terroir.
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.