Merlot Clear Lake (375ml)

Winemaking

Our typical winemaking style for red wines is a warm fermentation followed by pressing and racking. The wine then goes to Oak barrels and generally spends 18-20 months in a combination of American and French oak barrels. While most producers of Merlot tend toward the soft and supple wine style, we have opted, because of the quality of the grapes, to make a wine in a rich, generous style. This wine is a mouthful of pleasure: lots of fruit, medium tannins and a long lingering finish. We would recommend some cellar time for this wine if only to allow all of the great aromas and flavors properly meld. We feel that this wine can compete with any Merlot from any growing region anywhere in the world.

Vineyards

We are always on the lookout for classic varieties planted in ideal locations. Here the red volcanic soils, ample sunshine, almost no fog and the 1500 foot plus elevation and cool night temperatures, all add up to a wonderful place to grow red grapes. We harvest Merlot from two growers: Reed and Sarah Dorn and Floyd and Jolene Silva. The Dorns have the most dramatic vineyard in Lake County. Perched on a hollow on the northwest corner of the dormant volcano Mt Konocti, you look down 1000 feet to the lake and see a perfect circle in Dorn Bay: an ancient cinder cone. The Silvas’ vineyard is a manicured jewel on the bench land near Highland Springs Reservoir, close to Lakeport. The soils are great and the vines really produce some of the best fruit we have ever seen from Lake County.