Kenwood Merlot Sonoma

Description

”Our Sonoma County wines showcase the vibrant fruit and balanced complexities for which this beautiful region is famous.ABOUT SONOMA Located in the Northwest of the San Francisco Bay Area region in California, Sonoma County has its place among the worlds top winegrowing regions with 17 American Viticultural Areas AVAs or appellations and almost 60,000 acres of vineyards.At Kenwood we source grapes from throughout the county to assemble our award-winning wines, and place particular focus on those AVAs we consider the most interesting to create our signature offerings.FROM THE WINEMAKER Our Estate Vineyard located in the heart of the Sonoma Valley provides good color and excellent texture for our Merlot. The remainder of the blend is balanced with the rich fruit and spicy flavors from grapes sourced in the Dry Creek and Alexander Valleys.The vintage of 2014 marked the third year of Californias historic drought. The difficult growing conditions resulted in intensely flavored fruit with rich color and body. Although the weather was very dry, the summer was mild allowing the fruit to fully mature on the vine. Our Merlot vineyards were harvested in late September and early October as they achieved the peak of flavor.Each vineyard lot was picked, fermented, and aged separately in a combination of French and American oak barrels for 21 months.TASTING NOTES SMELL Red fruit aromas with notes of vanilla, lavender, cedar and mint.TASTE Complex structure with well-balanced tannins, velvety mouthfeel and a long finish.” – Pat Henderson, Chief Winemaker