2018 Meritage

Fair Play

TASTING NOTES: This wine boasts an easy to love aromatic profile of dried herbs, raspberry, and dried blueberry with hints of sweet American oak. Supple tannins, bright acidity and deep fruit flavors round out the palate of this medium bodied Bordeaux style blend. This wine will age beautifully for about 8 years.

WINEMAKING NOTES: 63% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot, 11% Petite Sirah, 5% Cabernet Franc, and topped with 1% Montepulciano. Our Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot vineyards in Fair Play produced very high-quality fruit in 2018. We were able to take advantage of a mid-harvest heat spell which allowed the fruit to fully mature enough to harvest. Upon crushing we took a 10% saignee (bleeding off of juice) to concentrate the already ripe flavors even more. We utilized a yeast strain isolated from the Bordeaux region to ferment the wine. Post fermentation we aged the wines separately in a blend of French and American oak. The resulting wines are some of the best to come off our vineyards. We decided to blend a portion of those wines into this Meritage as a taste summary of our Fair Play AVA vineyards.

AGING: Aged for 21 months in 2nd use French and American oak.

FOOD PAIRING: Filet Mignon with gorgonzola cream sauce. Roasted duck with a red wine and blueberry sauce. Cheeseburgers. Meatloaf. Macaroni and cheese. Stuffed mushrooms.

ACCOLADES: 91 Pts, Wine Enthusiast