Amour Merlot

Always barrel-aged in French oak and produced as a pure Merlot it showcases our vineyard and our winemaking. The fact that it won gold medals in major competition is also a nice accomplishment, underlining this wine’s quality and value.

Amour ~ A French word meaning "love" because everyone loves this unique, single-vineyard, pure Merlot and to honor Cecile, our original French wine making mentor.

Merlot ~ roughly translates to little blackbird, possibly due to its dark blue-black color having first been mentioned in print in 1783, spelled Merlau described as making “a black and excellent wine, productive in good soil.”

Pronunciation: mer-loh

Correct terroir, everything that influences the place where grapes grow, is vital to grow great Merlot and in our home estate vineyards we have been quietly growing and bottling a dazzling Merlot.

Soil profiles, prepared in March, 1990 showed 110” of loam and silty loam and 100” of loam and sandy loam across the vineyard profile resulting in a Sandy loam with 63% sand, 5% silt, and 32% clay produced from degraded limestone.

Clay soils contain a high Citation Exchange Capacity enabling the soil to provide more nutrients to the vines adding complexity and unique attributes to the grape flavor profile. Our soil chemistry profile proved to be very similar to that found in the appellation of Pomerol in Bordeaux, France, an area famous for growing the world's greatest Merlot.

Starting with the highly regarded Pétrus Clone 181 of Merlot from Pomerol our vines are planted in this rich, clay-loam over gravel soils which retain their humidity in summer, considered perfect for Merlot.

Clone 181, prone to early bud break, is fairly vigorous producing pendulous fruit clusters. The spherical, blue-black, medium size berries show a reasonable thickness of skin, a juicy pulp and a wonderful rich, opulent flavor.

North of Bordeaux's Gironde River, the “Right Bank”, Merlot historically is the basis of the wines of the St. Emilion and Pomerol appellations. Merlot is the jewel here with Château Pétrus and Château Le Pin, leaders in Bordeaux wines, over 90% Merlot.

At the Paris Exhibition of 1878, Pomerol’s Château Pétrus was awarded its first gold medal, an event of great consequence, establishing the first wine of Pomerol to achieve this exalted position.

In like fashion our Amour Merlot has won double gold medal (unanimous judge's decision) in the largest competition of American wines in the world.