1997 Teatown Cellars Napa Valley Merlot

The 1997 vintage in Napa Valley was thirty percent larger than normal. Any container that could hold juice was pressed into service. The best thing about all this additional juice was the quality, it was superb. We had been talking with Michael Havens at Havens Wine Cellars about doing a project like this and the timing was right, so we bought 1,300 gallons of his Napa blend.

Havens vinification of this wine was cutting edge. After alcoholic fermentation a portion of this wine went into a mix of 1, 2, and 3 year old French and American oak barrels for malo-lactic fermentation and barrel aging. The rest of the wine completed malo-lactic in stainless steel and underwent "Micro-Oxygenation". This is a revolutionary technique developed in France ("Microbullage"), in which controlled amounts of pure oxygen are injected into the wine. Through this process the tannins in the wine soften while the color and fruit remain fixed and fresh. 500 cases were produced.

The wine is a dark cherry red color. Aromas of black raspberry and garrigue, with a touch of chocolate as well. In the mouth bright, clean fruit redolent of cherry and raspberry with a distinct note of garrigue. Very elegant with well balanced oak and nicely resolved tannins. A long finish with good fruit intensity, nice lingering oak and soft tannins.

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.

If you would like to know about retailers in your area that carry Teatown Cellars Wines, need more information about us, or are interested in ordering our wine, please contact us.

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