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Price: $55.00 20% Discount to
Wine Club Members
TECHNICAL DATA:
Appellation: Alexander Valley
Release Date: September 1, 2007
Variety: 100% Merlot
Only 399 cases produced
Aged in 100% French oak barrels for 24 months in our caves.
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2004 ALEXANDER VALLEY
MERLOT
In the Tale of Two Cities,
when Charles Dickens begins his story, “It was the best
of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of
wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…” he could have
been (on a lesser scale of significance) describing the
2004 Merlot vintage in Sonoma County and Alexander
Valley. The vintage of 2004 was the best of times in
regard to Merlot wine quality for some experienced
Sonoma County wineries, like Robert Young Estate Winery,
but it was the worst of times for Merlot grape growers.
The Merlot crop in 2004 was extremely small (one of the
lightest yields in modern memory). The fruit quality was
superb; more than that, it was stunning. The marketplace
at the time was dumping on Merlot, in part because too
much Merlot had been planted by neophyte growers, many
from the 1990’s electronics business boom. With big
money in their pockets and a desire to get in the wine
business, these novices chased the Merlot craze of the
time into Sonoma County eventually growing flavorless
grapes grown on vines planted in the wrong place and
poorly farmed. The result was a “boatload” of inferior
wine. The consumer turned against those bad Merlots,
even though there were small batches of very good
Merlots being produced at the same time in California.
And then came the movie Sideways where a stupid guy
trashed California Merlot over and over again, while at
the same time professing his love for Chateau Cheval
Blanc, a wine that is mostly Merlot from the Saint
Emilion viticultural area of the Bordeaux region in
France. Luckily, at Robert Young, we are both grower and
winery. In 2004, we experienced the worst of times
selling our fine Merlot grapes to other wineries. On the
other hand at Robert Young Estate Winery we had our best
year ever making Merlot. As always, we chose the very
best sections of our renowned vineyards for this wine.
The fruit was in perfect condition at harvest even
though there was not much of it on each vine. The result
was a concentrated, intensely flavored, rich and
aromatic wine. There is sentiment among many of us in
the winery that this is the finest Merlot we have made
to date.
WINEMAKER KEVIN WARREN’S TASTING NOTES
Our 2004 Merlot has powerful aromas of blackberry,
blueberry, and Cabernet Sauvignon style black cherry
intermingled with barrel toast. There are hints of plum
and pepper, mostly white pepper. The wine is rich and
very well structured starting with a firm entry and
working through lots of soft tannins and a bracing
acidity. The flavors of this Merlot linger making them
hard to forget. We rate our 2004 Merlot 97 points on the
Robert Young-o-meter.
This wine has not been sent out for review.
Robert Young Estate Winery phone: 707 431-4811 fax: 707 431-4812 email:
info@ryew.com |
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