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| Drinking Windows and Values |
| Community Tasting History |
| Community Tasting Notes (average 90.8 pts. and median of 91 pts. in 145 notes) - hiding notes with no text | | | Tasted by mcflytfc on 4/22/2024 & rated 94 points: Medium ruby. Raspberry, chocolate, and a bit of alcohol on the nose. Initial impression is smooth and balanced, the acid is present but not overpowering or tart, the tannins are still noticable but pleasant and leave a lingering dryness. The wine is fruity but subtly so, I wouldn't place this in Napa given the mild fruit, it's restrained and composed in an unexpected way. I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. (307 views) | | | Tasted by Phildin on 4/17/2024 & rated 95 points: Very good, had an initial taste of cranberries and was smooth and stayed like that until it’s finished with no noticeable tannins
Complimented the steak I was eating very well
Would drink this any day! (297 views) | | | Tasted by mda7 on 4/12/2024 & rated 89 points: doesn't match other vintages IMO (287 views) | | | Tasted by SLO Wine 555 on 2/25/2024 & rated 85 points: Weak. No complexity, not interesting, provides the experience of drinking Merlot flavored water. Gift it to your neighbors who don’t drink wine regularly. Reviews with higher points suggest mellow drinkability, I agree. (565 views) | | | Tasted by Jonnhy99 on 1/16/2024 & rated 92 points: Pre-birthday wine on this snowy evening, I was supposed to have this for my birthday in 2021 then I came down with COVID so here we are three years later.
Lovely aromas of violet, rosemary, leather, black cherry, and blackberry. Juicy flavours of black cherry, ripe plum, cherry, licorice, bell pepper, and iron.
Medium plus acidity with approachable tannins to go with the medium minus finish. A savoury yet ripe wine, good stuff. (726 views) | | | Tasted by ElAzul on 10/15/2023 & rated 92 points: Flowers and red fruit aromas. On the palate the tannins are sweet and fully resolved and integrated with the black cherry, blueberry, chassis and vanilla. Just a yummy merlot to enjoy sipping or with food. (1148 views) | | | Tasted by Rudolph Schmidt on 9/10/2023: 80% Merlot, 16% Cabernet Sauvignon, 2.5% Cabernet Franc, 1% Petit Verdot, 0.5% Malbec.
40% new French Oak & 60% neutral. Decanted 30m. Ripe plum, baking spice, raspberry, mocha.
Soft, juicy with no backbone - quite similar to myself. (1165 views) | | | Tasted by levinml on 4/30/2023 & rated 92 points: Really enjoyable as I move more and more away from tannins. This had good flavors and nice balance without hammering my tongue. Wish I’d bought more. (1616 views) | | | Tasted by BSal58 on 4/21/2023 & rated 89 points: I didn't take any notes, but we liked it. It was easy drinking. (1253 views) | | | Tasted by Radboy on 3/19/2023 & rated 89 points: Drinking well, balanced fruit. (1467 views) | | | Tasted by CubFan4Life on 11/24/2022 & rated 92 points: Generally not a merlot guy but this was very pleasant, paired with Thanksgiving dinner. Not the most complex wine, but very easy drinking (1758 views) | | | Tasted by Baron Slick on 11/9/2022 & rated 93 points: This starts out a bit tight, somewhat primary, but it grows and evolves, revealing wonderful notes of dark fruit, plums, pastille, Christmas spices, and a whiff of peaches. It's so creamy and savory but it's also generous with its fruit-centered elements, bright energy, and impeccable balance. Always a lovely drop. (612 views) | | | Tasted by yuhyma@yahoo.com on 6/11/2022 & rated 92 points: Great notes of cherry, plum, and nutmeg. Light and not jammy nor sweet. Great Merlot from a great producer (2850 views) | | | Tasted by Sspalding91 on 6/9/2022 & rated 92 points: Aromas of plum, cherry, leather, oak. Smooth, low acidity, medium tannins, nice finish. Well balanced (2540 views) | | | Tasted by Romz on 4/17/2022 & rated 90 points: Deep ruby core with bright ruby trimmings at its edges. Concentrated nose of red fruit, plum, black cherry, with vanilla & dairy chocolate notes. Bottle breathing this for 2 hours allows the wine to open up to more feminine floral violet bouquet. Well integrated & fleshy tannins on the palate. I enjoyed the finish which has a hint of cloves & cinnamon notes (2958 views) | | | Tasted by L L Harding on 4/15/2022 & rated 91 points: A balanced and harmonious wine. (2815 views) | | | Tasted by Secureety on 3/26/2022 & rated 85 points: Nose : citronella, fresh cut grass, anise, just fresh
Palate : lovely, great acidity, bubblegum? Great sweetness, berry pie
Finish : smooth and easy (2530 views) | | | Tasted by Twopawsup on 3/19/2022 & rated 92 points: Ruby color with slow legs. Oak, mixed berry and cassis on the nose. Blackberry, plum and clove on the palate. Long leathery finish. (1791 views) | | | Tasted by John McCabe on 2/28/2022 & rated 93 points: This is one of my go-to wines when I'm travelling and I can get to a Wholefoods - always solid, consistent, quite enticing. (2321 views) | | | Tasted by Francophile1 on 2/18/2022 & rated 88 points: A straight laced four square Merlot that is easy drinking. Red cherry, touch of spice, firm structure. This was a pop n pour and could have benefited from an hour of decanting. First bottle opened was totally corked. Second bottle was not corked. While I hate sending back wines at a restaurant, TCA is TCA and not my fault. I always use it as an education opportunity for those who want to try the two side by side. (1875 views) | | | Tasted by Rbhan12 on 2/12/2022 & rated 91 points: Blind Tasting Trio: California Reds, interpret as you will; 2/11/2022-2/12/2022: Part of a blind tasting, this was my T2 for the night (tied with Caterwaul CS NV 2019, beat by WineAccess Commission 2019, other wines were Coho Merlot 16, Claudine Oakville CS 16).
Needed a few hours to really open up and show its stuff, but once it did, wow. This is a lovely Merlot. Floral, elegant, ethereal on the nose. Beautiful red fruits. Very delicate and intricate. Palate has so much tension and energy, lots of lovely acid, rocky mineral character, some tannins too. Finish was true to Merlot, the red fruit tailed off but the rocky-chalky character persisted for awhile, little bit of flowers too.
Didn't love this up front but as the night went on and this opened up, it became a stunner.
Drink now with a 2-3 hour decant or hold for 3-5 years. (2168 views) | | | Tasted by Canoehead on 2/11/2022 & rated 90 points: This needed >90 mins decant to open up and flesh out. Very good depth and finish. Not a great QPR up here in BC. (1764 views) | | | Tasted by Skonker on 1/27/2022 & rated 84 points: Black cherry, not much spice, slight tannin. Had to give it time to open up but a good wine once it had time to develop. (1751 views) | | | Tasted by Mark4w on 1/13/2022 & rated 89 points: Red fruit very fresh. Definitely decant. Good especially at price of $26 I paid but definitely like their Cab better. Steph liked it more (1891 views) | | | Tasted by MansfieldGarciaWine on 12/31/2021: For Marcia and Eve (1742 views) | | | Only displaying the 25 most recent notes - click to see all notes for this wine... |
| Duckhorn Vineyards Producer website
Decoy Wines websiteMerlotMerlot is a dark blue–colored wine grape variety, that is used as both a blending grape and for varietal wines. The name Merlot is thought to be a diminutive of merle, the French name for the blackbird, probably a reference to the color of the grape. Its softness and "fleshiness", combined with its earlier ripening, makes Merlot a popular grape for blending with the sterner, later-ripening Cabernet Sauvignon, which tends to be higher in tannin.USAAmerican wine has been produced since the 1500s, with the first widespread production beginning in New Mexico in 1628. Today, wine production is undertaken in all fifty states, with California producing 84% of all U.S. wine. The continent of North America is home to several native species of grape, including Vitis labrusca, Vitis riparia, Vitis rotundifolia, and Vitis vulpina, but the wine-making industry is based almost entirely on the cultivation of the European Vitis vinifera, which was introduced by European settlers. With more than 1,100,000 acres (4,500 km2) under vine, the United States is the fourth-largest wine producing country in the world, after Italy, Spain, and France.California2021 vintage: "Unlike almost all other areas of the state, the Russian River Valley had higher than normal crops in 2021, which has made for a wine of greater generosity and fruit forwardness than some of its stablemates." - Morgan Twain-Peterson Napa Valley Napa Valley Wineries and Wine (Napa Valley Vintners)Napa ValleySt. Helena |
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