Sterling Vineyards Napa Valley Merlot 750ml

Sterling Vineyards Napa Valley Merlot. Sterling Vineyards, one of Napa Valley’s premier winery destinations, offers an array of distinct and beautifully crafted wines from its home appellation. The Sterling Vineyards Napa Valley wines show the depth, strength and incredible quality representative of California’s most famous wine region. The grapes for Sterling Vineyards Napa Valley wines are grown in 14 diverse and premium vineyards throughout the valley—from the cool southern Carneros region to the warm and rugged northernmost reaches of the valley near Calistoga. These incredible vineyards give Winemaker Harry Hansen some of the best Napa Valley fruit to select from and craft these unique, intensely flavored and expressive wines.

Tasting Notes
The Sterling Vineyards Napa Valley Merlot is a vivid ruby-red color in the glass with aromas of blackberry fruit, plum and ripe black cherry. The appealing bouquet leads to a mouthcoating, rich palate where additional red and black fruit flavors mingle with notes of graphite and dried spice. The viscous mouthfeel of the wine is plush and the ripe tannins are refined and polished. The Napa Valley Merlot is well-balanced and elegant, offering true varietal characteristics and a sleek, flavorful finish.

Winemaking Notes
Kept in separate small lots until the final blending process, the grapes for the Napa Valley Merlot were picked, quickly brought to the winery and placed in tanks for a two-day cold soak designed to extract color and flavor from the grapes. The juice was then fermented dry and the young wine was placed in American (56%), French (30%) and European (14%) oak barrels for 18 months.