It’s always exciting to reach into our library and uncork such a stellar vintage to see how it’s evolved. The wine has achieved a beautiful bloom, revealing that idyllic balance of earthy, savory, and fruity components we strive for in our Merlots. Captivating nuances of truffle, leather, mushroom, and cracked black pepper emerge beneath a surge of sweet cassis, black plum, and fresh fig, all riding on a soft lift of acidity enveloped in seamless evolved tannins. As the wine opens in the glass, it retains its breadth and grip as a deep, saturated expression of Merlot unfolds. Still bright and fresh after a decade of cellaring, this wine will continue to reveal its finest details over the next five years, though I find it stunning to uncork now. – Winemaker Katie Vogt
Composition
95% Merlot
1% Petit Verdot
4% Cabernet Sauvignon
Vineyards
- Pahlmeyer Estate Vineyard,
- Stagecoach
Critics
96 Points
Robert Parker, The Wine Advocate, December 2016
An absolute epic wine is the 2013 Merlot. It is no wimpy wine either. A gorgeous nose including roasted espresso, melted black chocolate, blackberry, plum and cassis offers an exceptional set of aromatics. The wine has beautiful ripeness, headiness and a long finish of close to 45+ seconds. This is a beauty of terrific purity, texture and personality. Few California Merlots will ever be capable of equaling this. Drink it over the next 25-30+ years.
Winemaking
- Winemaker:
- Kale Anderson
- Alcohol:
- 15.2%
- Harvested:
- September 13 to October 12, 2013
- Bottled:
- May 6, 2015
- Released:
- October 15, 2015
Grape clusters were gravity-fed onto a vibrating table with two screens to sift out materials other than grapes while we removed by hand any fruit that did not pass visual inspection. After gentle destemming, individual berries were then run through another hand-sorting pass to ensure only clean fruit was delivered into the fermenters. After five days of cold maceration, the fruit entered primary fermentation for two to six weeks, then gently basket pressed. 15% of the wine was fermented in French oak 500L puncheons, and the remaining in new Seguin Moreau Icone and Taransaud French Oak barrels and aged for 20 months.
