Amour Merlot 2013 - Half Bottle
From a single Merlot vineyard on our home ranch this lovely Merlot is a perfect ruby color. The wine is a melding of noble character with fine elegance and great style.
A wonderfully expressive nose, full of raspberry and blackberry aromas with hints of bell pepper and blackcurrant, hinting at the complexity of great fruit.
On the palate, the luscious, creamy blackberry-chocolate texture carries plenty of fruit, the licorices extending the flavor profile, with soft, supple, slightly earthy tannin and balanced acidity. There is no doubt why this estate grown, single-vineyard Merlot repeatedly wins gold medals.
An ideal pairing for chocolate desserts but is also excellent with soft meats such as pork chop, rack of lamb or filet mignon where the meat is the primary desired flavor and the cooking process involves leaving fat on the meat.
The 2013 vintage exceeded our expectations on both quality and quantity. Rare as it was to have another fruitful year right after the record breaking 2013 crush, the quality across all varietals was also excellent.
The overall vigor of this growing season was high which required more canopy management and more vigilance with regard to pest abatement. The harvest began and finished early, the timing of crop maturity being dictated entirely by our canopy management practices and manually reduced crop load.
By addressing canopy management and green fruit harvesting early we were able to significantly reduce pest pressure and encourage early fruit ripening. The final wine quality in tank was excellent across the board for all varietals and appellations.
100% French Oak: 40% New; 35% One Use; 25% Neutral
This wine never ceases to amaze us - it literally makes itself with virtually no intervention required from the winemaker. The grapes are cold-soaked for pre-ferment maceration, fermented in small, temperature-controlled, open-top tanks with punch downs occurring as needed during fermentation followed by 30 to 45 days of post-ferment maceration. The free-run wine is then consigned to French oak Bordeaux barrels for approximately 22 months.
| Color | Red |
|---|---|
| Vintage | 2013 |
| Harvest Date | 20th Sep 2014 |
| Vintage | 26° |
| Style | Red Bordeaux |
| Appellation | Dry Creek Valley |
| Varietal | Merlot |
| Date Bottled | 18th Aug 2015 |
| Alcohol | 14.90% |
| Bottle Size | 375ml |
| PH Level | 3.64 |
| Residual Sugar | 0.049% |
| TA | 0.685 |
