Merlot Wine

Producer Description 

Dark, brick red in color, this wine boasts rich aromas of black fruit and spice on the nose. Blackberry and black cherry flavors dominate with a just hint of green pepper. Rich and full flavored, the finish is bold with a touch of oak.

Producer Description 

Our Merlot is medium-bodied with deep blackberry aromas and a soft, satisfying finish. Enjoy its smooth flavors with Grilled Pork Chops with Apples or Rosemary-Braised Lamb Shanks.

Expert Reviews

Wine Enthusiast 91 Points | This wine is now mature, showing richness while also preserving elegance. Earthy, herbal tones are laced through the wine’s juicy fruit texture. Enjoy now for best enjoyment.

Wine Spectator 90-93 Points | Still very primal, but enticing, with sappy raspberry, sweet spice, melted licorice and linzer torte notes that have yet to stretch out fully. There's racy acidity as well, so this should knit nicely.

Winemaker Description

This delicious, versatile wine begins with aromas of blackberry, rose hip, dried cranberries and hints of boysenberry followed by notes of violets and crushed spices.

On the palate, the wine begins with a soft, dense, lush, tannin structure supported by flavors of red berry fruit, subtle acidity and a long flavorful, vanilla finish. 

Winemaker Description

Aromas of plum, raspberry and cherry are layered with earthy tones of mushroom, sage and pine. Soft on the palate, flavors of black cherry and red plum with notes of dark chocolate lead to a bright finish.

Try this wine with fatty dishes. Red meats and flavor-forward ingredients like cooked tomatoes will deliciously complement this wine’s brightness and fine-grained tannins. Winemaker Description. 

Winemaker Description 

This Napa Valley Merlot is sourced from a combination of high elevation mountain sites as well as wonderful benchland vineyards around the valley. Freemark Abbey blends in a touch of Cabernet Sauvignon for structure and balance. The wine opens with aromas of ripe plum, blueberry, milk chocolate and cedar. The palate is met with flavors of wild raspberry, bramble fruits, allspice, cinnamon, dry herbs, and oak spice.

The textures are supple yet vibrant with well-integrated tannins that drink beautifully now on its own or paired with a wide range of dishes.

Silky smooth and easy on the palate. This wine is a great slurper with juicy, ripe fruit flavors, complemented by aromas of dark plums and a touch of mint and soft vanillia oak. Winemaker Description. 

Winemaker Description

Our Merlot is medium-bodied with a hint of oak and flavors of cherries and plums. It is rich in the mouth and ends in a soft fruit filled finish. 

Expert Reviews - Vintage 2020 

100 Points  Decanter | Intense and full on the nose, fragrant with ripe black fruit, floral aspects and soft spicing. Round and full on the palate, it's rich and muscular yet tight and neatly coiled with a liquorice, graphite, pepper, cinnamon and clove tang that gives this immediate but enjoyable spice. Feels well worked, juicy with high acidity that lifts the palate and gives freshness and brightness alongside really quite mouthwatering strawberry and raspberry fruit with such captivating dried floral and bitter orange rind aspects. Tannins are super fine and so well integrated yet this maintains a grip and hold from the very beginning through to a long and sustained finish. Nuanced and complex, still packing a punch in terms of power, but this feels sophisticated, suave, purposeful and controlled. Not elegant, this is more of a caged animal with it's full potential yet to be unveiled, but it is classy. A truly delicious wine with so much purity and sense of place. Malolactic fermentation in 100% new barroques, with each batch kept separate for the first 12 months of ageing before being blended and returned to barriques for another year, totalling 24 months. The wine was then aged for a further 12 months in bottle before being released. Winemaker Gaia Cinnirella.

99 Points Wine Enthusiast | A hedge maze of aromas greets the nose, from blackberries and black cherries to crushed stones and crumpled petals, before a gentle addition of vanilla and toasted coconut. Mixed berries with vanilla and cardamom soak the palate, followed by freshly tilled dirt and flinty stone notes, and finally an astringent, brooding spiciness on the back. Tannins are tightly stitched together across the palate like a tapestry, with acrobatic acid emphasizing a salt and pepper finish. A wine that speaks volumes without shouting.

99 Points James Suckling | Intense aromas of ripe herbs, plums, green coffee beans, and hazelnuts. Turns to crushed berries and orange peel. Full-bodied with superb concentration and fine, velvety tannins that run the length of the wine. It's big but agile and gorgeous. Merlot. What a wine! Best after 2030.

99 Points Jeb Dunnuck | 97-99 Tasted from barrel, the 2020 Masseto is incredibly expressive out of the gate, with a sweet perfume of candied plum, boysenberry, crushed flowers, mocha, sweet earth, and fresh sage. The palate is full-bodied and decadent, with a velvety texture and notes of black plum, fresh leather, and scorched mineral earth. It delivers great finesse and polish that features opulence without having weight. I look forward to tasting this next year from bottle.

98 Points Vinous Media | The 2020 Masseto is superb. Bright and vibrant in the glass, the 2020 offers up an exciting mix of dark-toned fruit, mocha, spice, leather, tobacco, cedar and a kiss of French oak. Lively acids and Franc aromatics lend vibrancy throughout. The Franc is so evident today. This is exceptionally polished and sophisticated, albeit a touch slender relative to most years. In 2020, Masseto is more finesse than power.

97 Points  Wine Spectator | Complex, with a luscious texture and saturated plum, blackberry, black olive, iron, tobacco and toasty spice aromas and flavors, this red features a full, rich timbre. Offers a lively, well-integrated structure, with a long aftertaste of fruit and spices and a pleasant chalky feel. Merlot. Best from 2025 through 2043.

96 Points Wine Advocate | The 2020 Masseto now sees new DNA with a touch of Cabernet Franc added to this celebrated Merlot-based icon wine. This is a vintage of enormous richness and density, and everything about the wine is taken up a notch or two (including the bottle glass weight and the 15% alcohol content). But Axel Heinz and his team are well prepared for the hot vintages like 2020, and changes to farming and canopy management ensure even ripening. This wine is always hard to analyze in its youth. It needs many more years to soften and flesh out. Give it time.

Winemaker Description 

The Beringer Founders' Estate Merlot is approachable and delicious. Hints of plum and brown spice on the nose compliment the boysenberry, blackberry and blueberry finish on the palate. It's well-balanced, soft tannins make this wine a perfect accompaniment to a variety of foods, such as grilled meats or hearty vegetable dishes. 

Winemaker Description

Israel. The Yarden Merlot Allone Habashan 2016 is the first release from this vineyard. The wine presents a fragrant blend of aromas featuring ripe red and black fruits, flowers, spice, tobacco, orange zest and chocolate.

This attractive single-vineyard wine is full-bodied, flavorful and complex. The wine aged for 18 months in small French oak barrels, of which 70% were new. While ready to enjoy upon release the wine will improve in the bottle over the coming years, and should stay in excellent drinking condition for a decade or more from harvest.

Winemaker Description

Forest Glen Winery produces full-flavoured, smooth red wines that are aged in small American oak barrels and are ready to be enjoyed without further bottle aging.