2000 Teatown Cellars Napa Valley Merlot

We try to make Napa Valley Merlot that is a little different. Vibrant Merlot fruit; lots of intense, purely extracted fruit, wrapped in a nicely structured oak blanket.

The 2000 vintage is a blend from two vineyard sources about a mile apart, north of St. Helena. Ballentine Vineyards, a major component of our 1999 Napa Valley Merlot, sold us 1500 gallons in 2000. And the fruit came from the same vineyard block as in 1999. I was also very fortunate to buy 2500 gallons of stunningly supple Merlot from Bennesere Vineyards.

The 2000 Napa Valley Merlot was aged in 100% new, center of France, oak cooperage, for seven months. I did not want to smother the wine in oak, but rather, smell and taste fruit primarily, oak secondarily. In August all of the wine was racked into a stainless tank to marry before bottling on August 30, 2001. 1446 cases produced.

Dark red/ruby color. On the nose blackberry and currant; underbrush with a touch of chocolate and toasty oak. In the mouth intense fruit flavors dominated by bing cherry and raspberry flavors, lush and supple, with moderate tannins and balanced well integrated oak. A long, lush finish of blackberry fruit, soft tannins and toasty oak.

A note about corks: How many times have you opened a bottle of wine and found it to be corked? The corks that we have used for this bottling are a type called "twin-top composite." With this type of cork, tainted bottles become a very rare event, significantly less than 1%, virtually non-existent.

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