Keenan Mernet Reserve 2018 (750ml)

Description

Winemaker Notes

2019 is their 21st consecutive vintage of “Mernet” (mare-nay) their proprietary marriage of Merlot and Cabernet. This year the blend is 50% Merlot, all coming from our “Mailbox Vineyard”, and 50% Cabernet Sauvignon Clone 337 from our “Big K” vineyard. The resulting wine is a seamless blend with an emphasis on high-toned sweet delicious rich fruit with an almost hidden depth and structure. Enjoy now or decades from now.

Professional Ratings

• 96James SucklingA solid and structured red with bark and blackberry, as well as sap and pine-cone undertones. Medium-bodied and tannic, yet polished and deep. The tannins melt into the wine. A blend of cabernet sauvignon and merlot. Drink after 2025.
• 94Wine & SpiritsKeenan’s Mailbox Vineyard consistently provides the merlot-half of Mernet, then the team looks for cabernet sauvignon to bring out what Michael Keenan calls “merlot’s high-toned sweet spot.” In 2019, their choice was clone 337 cabernet sauvignon grown at the Big K Estate Vineyard high up Spring Mountain. The combination takes on a foresty mountain freshness. There’s lovely depth to the ripe fruit, the tannins delicately rich and yielding. For now, the new oak is overt, bringing scents of freshly ground coffee, but the wine has a tensile strength that will sustain it as the oak and fruit marry.
• 93Robert Parker’s Wine AdvocateA strong effort, the 2019 Mernet Reserve—a 50-50 blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, aged in one-third new oak, delivers plenty of almost grapey fruit, cassis and black cherries, underscored by hints of vanilla and cedar. It’s medium to full-bodied, richly tannic and velvety, with a long, mouthwatering finish.

  Rating: 93+

• 91Jeb DunnuckThe 2019 Red Blend Mernet Reserve is one of the standouts and is clearly an outstanding wine. Medium-bodied and elegant on the palate, it has a fresh, herbal, complex style in its notes of chocolaty dark fruits, leafy herbs, cedarwood, and spicy oak. It should keep for 10-15 years.