Winemaker Notes
The 2021 Meredith Estate features floral essences of peony, plumeria and rose. The nose of this deeply layered wine offers hints of toasted nuts, Bing cherry, tangerine and cedar. Seductive and silky tannins mark the entry, with black cherry, dark chocolate and fresh earth leading to a long, elegant finish.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The flagship wine of the estate, the 2021 Pinot Noir Meredith Estate is a blend of different clones from a vineyard planted in 1998. Its aromas lift with notes of wet stones, blackberries, and fresh sage. Full-bodied, it has refined tannins, although it’s certainly structured. It’s in its youthful baby fat stage, so I would prefer to hold this one for a few years in cellar and check in on it when it’s matured and leans into its more tertiary characteristics.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2021 Pinot Noir Meredith Estate offers continually unfurling scents of red cherry jam, burnt orange peel, tobacco leaves and conifer. The medium-bodied palate features pure, concentrated, juicy flavors. It's structured by abundant, grainy tannins and has a long, spicy finish.
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Wine Spectator
Offers full-on fruit, with a large, fleshy core of mulberry, boysenberry and loganberry flavors backed by singed apple wood and dark licorice notes. A brambly echo through the finish provides needed energy. Drink now through 2030. 1,400 cases made.
Merry Edwards Winery was founded in 1997 and produces critically acclaimed terroir-driven Pinot Noirs and Sauvignon Blanc using site-specific viticulture in the Russian River Valley and Sonoma Coast appellations. Over two decades, Merry assembled a stellar collection of vineyards and with her meticulous attention to detail crafted Pinot Noirs of immense depth, elegant structure and exceptional longevity. Her Sauvignon Blanc is among the most sought after in the world.
Now a Certified California Sustainable Winery, the brand entered a new chapter after Merry’s retirement. Merry’s handpicked successor, Winemaker Heidi von der Mehden, and Winery President Nicole Carter have taken up exactly where Merry left off and will continue to make wines treasured by legions of Merry Edwards’ fans well into the future.
While the Russian River Valley is a large appellation with multiple climate zones and soil types, it is best known for cool-climate varieties, with Pinot Noir as the most celebrated. The grapes benefit from a reliable late afternoon flow of Pacific Ocean fog through the Petaluma Gap and along the Russian River Valley that ensures slow and steady ripening and the preservation of grape acidity. Today many of California’s most highly regarded Pinot Noir vineyards are in the Russian River Valley, along with its sub-appellation, Green Valley.
Historically Russian River Valley Pinot Noirs had bright red fruit and delicate earthy, mineral notes. But changes in viticultural and winemaking practices have led to stylistic changes in some of the region’s wines. Adjustments to canopy management, among other techniques, have resulted in riper fruit and bolder wines as well. These show flavors of black cherry, blackberry, cola, spice and darker, loamy earth tones, accenting traditional Pinot Noir notes of strawberry, raspberry and light cherry.