2004 Merlot
This single vineyard Merlot comes from the same few acres on the northern edge of our Red Winery Road Vineyard as our popular 2003 vintage.
It was given a twenty-one day extended maceration and was aged for eighteen months in 40 percent new French oak, then blended a bit of Cabernet Sauvignon from the same vineyard. This wine is even more atypical of California Merlot than was the 2002 and 2003. It is dry and spicy, deeply colored, with almost aggressive tannins offset by delicate flowery aromas and a touch of cinnamon and nutmeg from the French oak. We produced only 500 cases of this vintage.