Kronick Wino

A Taste Of Time - Duckhorn Merlot Across Three Decades

Sunday, February 7th, 2010 | Wine Tasting Notes, wine, wine events | 1 Comment

Starting with 1985 (on the far left), there was still a strong influence from Europe in the way California growers kept their grapes. At that time, the old-world style of letting the grapes show their fruit and allowing an extended lay-down on the bottle was apparent when I took my first waft of the red and orange-tinged liquid in my glass. I wasn’t detecting a big fruity merlot most of us are used to; I was sensing something close to an old-world style Bordeaux!

TASTING NOTES

1985 Napa Valley Merlot ‘Three Palms Vineyard’– 75% Merlot, 25% Cabernet Sauvignon (~12.5% alc.)

Good dark leather, cherry fruit on the nose with a hint of tobacco, cedar and a little vanilla spice. Flavors of sweet soy sauce with solid tannic structure, but not big at all in the mouth. The fruit is still fresh, despite the age.

1985 Napa Valley Merlot (my favorite of the two) – 78% Merlot, 15% Cabernet, 7% Cab Franc

Some chocolate-covered cherry on the nose, cedar and oak, dark spice of lavender and violet. Soft tannins, a good balance of fruit, some leather in the flavor. About an hour later in the glass: very smoky and rounded spiciness. This opened up beautifully!

Jumping to the 1995 vintages, everything changes. The wine is bigger, fruitier and toastier. The increase of alcohol levels during the 1990s was very common and only continued to grow into the 21^st century. Both of the merlots are drinking beautifully now and could be cellared for a few more years, but definitely at a peak.

TASTING NOTES

1995 Napa Valley Merlot ‘Three Palms Vineyard’ – 76% Merlot, 18% Cab Franc, 6% Cab Sauv. (13.4% alc.)

Aging nicely with bright blackberry and blueberry fruit on the nose. Lots of cherry and strawberry on the palate, milk chocolaty and toasty vanilla tones. There is an underlying current of minerality and slate through the Three Palms merlots.

1995 Napa Valley Merlot – 82% Merlot, 13% Cab Sauv, 5% Cab Franc

Rich ruby red color with more earth and mushroom, black cherry and coffee on the nose. It was smooth, with dark, intense juiciness. Needed to blow off the alcohol for a little bit, though. Black cherry and cassis flavors came out beautifully balanced with the oak towards the end of the tasting.

The 2005 vintages lead us into what is predominately in the market now and ready to drink. The difference leading up to this point is that the tasting went from letting the grapes display their elegance, to big, juicy fruit bombs that are manipulated with oak, some sugar to raise the alcohol levels and much richer drinking. Upon first sips, I forgot I was drinking merlot and feeling more like a cabernet sauvignon had been placed in front of me. In fact, had this been a blind tasting, I would have failed miserably. The only tell-all was the lack of black pepper on the nose that is common in Napa cabs.

TASTING NOTES

Three Palms Merlot – 77% Merlot, 14% Cab, 6% Cab Franc, 3% Petit Verdot (~14+% alc.)

Very pretty nose of flowers, like sweet rose petals and violets (indicative of the petit verdot). Some orange peel, sweet fruits of cherry and boysenberry came out on the palate. This wine had a nice dark color, good cedar aromas, some mustiness and lots of cherry-vanilla hues. This was my absolute favorite! Tremendously LUSH.

Napa Valley Merlot – 86% Merlot, 13% Cab, 5% Cab Franc

Lots of raspberry, red licorice, clove spice, leather and strong, rich tannins made this a wonderful wine as well. It was chewy, presented a big mouth feel wine that would be fantastic with some herbed lamb chops. It was showcasing full acidity and lots of black pepper! A little bitter at the end would be rounded out nicely with some aged cheeses for sure.

Finally, we reached the most current vintages that are not quite out on the market, or soon will be by the time this article reaches some of you. The 2006 Three Palms merlot and the 2007 Napa Valley merlot are not the merlots of old. These are what most of us have come to expect out of Napa, CA. However, please don’t take these comments as negative. It’s become clear to many winegrowers of California that they have a certain terroir to introduce, and have spent the last 30 years honing in on those characteristics. What I tasted out of these two vintages was just that…

TASTING NOTES

2006 Three Palms Merlot – 75% Merlot, 13% Cab, 7% Cab Franc, 5% Petit Verdot (Not on the market just yet)

This was an expected aroma of new wood oak barrels, like freshly cut timber. This wine shows strong acidity at the front, some strawberry and red berry fruit flavors on the tongue with strong minerality and a long jammy finish. It was nice to drink now, but absolutely needs some time in the bottle; say, 3-5 years.

2007 Napa Valley Merlot (another favorite) – 89% Merlot, 10% Cab, 1% Petit Verdot

A lot more pepper this time than the Three Palms was showing and also darker in color. I picked up a lot of tobacco flavors, cherry pie with a tinge of anise or sweet licorice. Some plum and vanilla lingered in the background. Fig fruit, almond and cedar came out on the finish and a bit of doughiness from the oak aging. Very sold wine in terms of structure. This is great to drink now, but I think in about 5 years, this is going to be phenomenal wine!

It’s clear that the folks at Duckhorn know their grape and will continue to create beauty in a bottle. It was so surreal to taste wines that have been around about as long as I have and to grasp what each one revealed over a course of its life. Well done!

Cheers,

Kronick Wino

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