Winemaker Notes
Blend: 100% Merlot
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Pride's 2009 Merlot Vintner's Select is gorgeous and silky from the very first taste. Sweet red cherries, licorice, mint, cinnamon and dried flowers are all woven together in this beautifully balanced wine. The 2009 has lovely mid-palate pliancy to match its radiant, generous personality. I tasted the 2009 Merlot after all the Pride Cabernets and it more than held its own. Anticipated maturity: 2014-2024.
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Wine Spectator
A supple and fleshy red, with zesty aromas of black cherry, mocha and spice that lead to rich flavors of red currant, toast and spice. Tannins are ripe and well-structured.
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Wine Enthusiast
This 100% Merlot is fruit forward in cherry pie and chocolate flavors, it's hard to resist drinking it now. But it's also quite tannic. Cellar Selection.
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.
Home to a diverse array of smaller AVAs with varied microclimates and soil types, Sonoma County has something for every wine lover. Physically twice as large as Napa Valley, the region only produces about half the amount of wine but boasts both tremendous quality and variety. With its laid-back atmosphere and down-to-earth attitude, the wineries of Sonoma are appreciated by wine tourists for their friendliness and approachability. The entire county intends to become a 100% sustainable winegrowing region by 2019.
Sonoma County wines are produced with carefully selected grape varieties to reflect the best attributes of their sites—Dry Creek Valley’s consistent sunshine is ideal for Zinfandel, while the warm Alexander Valley is responsible for rich, voluptuous red wines like Cabernet Sauvignon. Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are important throughout the county, most notably in the cooler AVAs of Russian River, Sonoma Coast and Carneros. Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot and Syrah have also found a firm footing here.