MERLOT

Currently sold out-

This grape variety comes from the famous St. Emillon region of Bordeaux, France. This rich red wine was aged for eighteen months in small oak barrels to help mellow the wine and emphasize the soft tannins and berry flavors of 100% Yakima Valley Merlot. The Crawford Vineyard Merlot has flavors distinct to their terrior: Bing cherry, blackberry, mint, smoke, oak and chocolate, which allow it to be enjoyed with hearty meals. This location also produces big tannins not typical to new world Merlot.  It also can be further aged to bring the wine to its fullest potential.

To help highlight the terrior we speak of, our fermentation with the skins is limited, making for softer tannin structure, which helps to emphasize the fruit.  Additionally, we age this wine only in older barrels; minimizing the oaky quality of the aging process, while gaining the dynamic maturing that only an oak barrel can give!

2014 Vintage Notes:  A cooler vintage helped preserve excellent acid structure of our Merlot, which has made a food friendly wine, more like a French version than a low acid California version.  Bottle age has now helped this wine mellow and become integrated, we highly recommend it.