$50/bottle under the original label
Gold Medal, 2022 SF International Wine Competition
N.95 Alexander Valley Merlot comes to us from the same producer as N.94 Dry Creek Merlot. Normally, these two wines are blended together into a top-end Sonoma County bottling at $50/bottle but we just liked 'em better as individual wines. N.95 is the brighter, more ethereal offering of the two, beautifully complex and powerfully elegant with seamless integration and plenty of backbone.
This is an incredible deal at $20/bottle!
Deep garnet in the glass. The bouquet is spicy with clove, singing cherry, and brown sugar notes wrapped in tobacco leaf. Rich up front on the palate with cherry and graham cracker haloed with herb de Provence and dried chile with a little Red Hot spice adding serious complexity. Vibrant acid and tension on mid palate are resinous with well-delineated red fruits singing throughout the lengthy finish. The suppleness that originally attracted me to this wine is a bit subdued from bottling, but I am confident that it will come around.
100% Merlot
40% new French oak
15.1% alc.
