The best of the old and new world winemaking

Merlot

Our newest wine is our Merlot, the first vintage was 2017. For longtime followers of our family’s wines, this might come as a surprise. But for those of us at the vineyard, it was only a matter of time. In 1999 we bought vines from a local nursery and planted our first Merlot. After a couple of years we were surprised to find that the Merlot vines weren’t actually Merlot, but also Cabernet Franc and Zinfandel intermixed throughout the rows! It took us five years to gradually remove the uninvited lurkers and finally have a block of 100% Merlot.

Fast forward to 2017. Walking through each row of the block I found four rows under an imposing native Quillay tree. It was, without a doubt, the place to source our first four barrels of Merlot.

Once the fermentation is complete, we add a little sulfur, top up the barrels and the vat and let it age until just before (or sometimes just after) the subsequent harvest. We generally blend together the wines from the various vessels prior to bottling. So far, putting all the pieces together has resulted in the best wine, although in the future we may bottle some of the wines separately.

It’s pretty minimal winemaking, by new world standards. Handling the wine this way, with what you might call benign neglect, moves the wine out of the strictly fruit driven realm into something more savory, even earthy. But it retains freshness thanks to the naturally high acidity. A unique expression of the vineyard, and quite different than the Cariblanco.

Acres
41
Soil
Red clay loam with decomposed granite
Clones
Mendoza 76, 96, 130
Roots
Own rooted
Production
~250 cases per year
Varietal Composition
100% Chardonnay
Alcohol
13.5%-14.5%
Type of oak
French (50%), Concrete Egg Container (50%)
 
Sabino
93 pts Tim Atkin, 2018 Sabino
92 pts Descorchados, 2018 Sabino
93 pts James Suckling, 2017 Sabino
92 pts Tim Atkin, 2017 Sabin
91 pts Descorchados, 2017 Sabino