Winemaker Notes
Blend: 85% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Petit Verdot
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A dense and flavorful red with a focused center palate of blackcurrants, dark chocolate and walnuts. Firm and velvety tannins. Flavorful finish. Better in 2018.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The flagship wine at Merryvale is their Profile, and the 2012 Proprietary Red Blend Profile carries a blend of 78% Cabernet Sauvignon, 11% Malbec, 10% Petit Verdot and 1% Cabernet Franc. Beautiful blueberry, white flowers, black and red currants, as well as some incense and camphor jump from the glass of this stunningly proportioned, complex wine. The mouthfeel is medium to full-bodied with superb purity, enticing texture and oodles of beautiful ripe fruit that cascade over the palate. I think of it as a gracious and somewhat restrained, but authoritative Napa Red Wine.
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Wine Enthusiast
Muted initially before slowly unlacing faint baking spices and rose, this wine is jammy, with a plushness of oak and weight. It offers a structure and power dotted in cedar, tar and leather, finishing in pleasing waves of coconut and chocolate.
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Wine Spectator
Well-centered on pure, rich blackberry and boysenberry flavors, this is presented in a supple manner, accented by gravel-laced tannins. Ends with a dusty, loamy aftertaste. Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot and Malbec.
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Wine & Spirits
Eclipsed by its tannins when first poured, this is chewy and dry, with bitter almond flavors that slowly begin to juice up toward fruit. With a day of air, the fruit has come forward in rich layers of black cherry and black currant. The tannins turn gentle and creamy—a luxurious wine for entrecôte. (700 cases)
Undoubtedly proving its merit over and over, Napa Valley is a now a leading force in the world of prestigious red wine regions. Though Cabernet Sauvignon dominates Napa Valley, other red varieties certainly thrive here. Important but often overlooked include Merlot and other Bordeaux varieties well-regarded on their own as well as for their blending capacities. Very old vine Zinfandel represents an important historical stronghold for the region and Pinot noir is produced in the cooler southern parts, close to the San Pablo Bay.
Perfectly situated running north to south, the valley acts as a corridor, pulling cool, moist air up from the San Pablo Bay in the evenings during the hot days of the growing season, which leads to even and slow grape ripening. Furthermore the valley claims over 100 soil variations including layers of volcanic, gravel, sand and silt—a combination excellent for world-class red wine production.