Winemaker Notes
The John X Merriman is a powerful wine that rewards aging. In its youth the wine is worth decanting and expresses cassis, black currant and dark fruits complemented with cigar tobacco and sour cherry notes. As the wine ages and its fine grained tannins soften a softer more savory palate develops revealing wonderful drinkability and tertiary complexity.
Blend: 43% Cabernet Sauvignon, 36% Merlot, 14% Petit Verdot, 7% Malbec
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Aromas of blackcurrant, back licorice, bark and baking spice. Full-bodied with silky tannins. Black-fruited with savory spice and leafy herbs. Steady intensity and depth here. Persistent. Sustainable.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Produced from 43% Cabernet Sauvignon, 36% Merlot, 7% Malbec and 14% Petit Verdot, the 2020 John X Merriman offers a layered and seductive nose of black fruits with hints of oak and spice with dried herbs wafting from the nose. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is balanced with buttressing tannins and succulent acidity, offering flavors of black plum and dark cherry with hints of cassis and cinnamon. The wine glides to an elegant and complex finish that has me returning for a second and third sip. Bravo. This aged for 20 months in 35% new French oak barrels. 180,000 bottles were produced.
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Wine Enthusiast
A fruit-focused nose introduces a round and tasty palate, where plums, wild berries and hints of bell pepper are enhanced by black pepper and baking spices. These flavors extend through the finish. Indigo Wine Group.
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Wine Spectator
Offers juicy black currant and boysenberry fruit accented by delicate black licorice, fig cake, graphite and dried thyme. Well-meshed, with light, taut tannins and a subtle streak of loamy earth. Fresh and balanced, this is a round and creamy crowd-pleaser. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petit Verdot and Malbec. Drink now.
One of the world’s most classic and popular styles of red wine, Bordeaux-inspired blends have spread from their homeland in France to nearly every corner of the New World. Typically based on either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, the best of these are densely hued, fragrant, full of fruit and boast a structure that begs for cellar time. Somm Secret—Blends from Bordeaux are generally earthier compared to those from the New World, which tend to be fruit-dominant.
South Africa’s most famous wine-producing district, Stellenbosch, surrounds the historic town with the same name; fine winemaking here dates back to the late 1600s. Its valleys of granite, sandstone and alluvial loam soils between the towering blue-grey mountains of Stellenbosch, Simonsberg and Helderberg have the capacity to produce beautiful wines from many varieties. The climate is warm Mediterranean, tempered by the cool Atlantic air of nearby False Bay.
Perhaps most well-known for its Pinotage and Bordeaux blends, Stellenbosch also produces noteworthy wines from Syrah, Chenin blanc, Chardonnay and Sauvignon blanc. The district’s wards—Banghoek, Bottelary, Devon Valley, Jonkershoek Valley, Papegaaiberg, Polkadraai Hills and Simonsberg-Stellenbosch—all produce distinctive wines from vines with relatively low yields.