2021 Merlot

• Composition
  100% Merlot
• Vineyard Source
  Madrigal Vineyards
• Appellation
  Napa Valley
• Barrel aging
  11 months in 30% new oak, 50/50 French/American
• Alcohol by vol.
  14.8%

As we’ve mused elsewhere, the overlapping time warps of farming and winemaking annually find us growing and/or harvesting one vintage while bottling another while releasing yet another. For this reason each new vintage is bound to the last by virtue of simultaneity. The tremendous challenges of 2020 — both the growing season and the winemaking season that followed — made this never more true, and exponentially so because we accelerated some of our 2021 vintage production (which took place during the 2022 growing season) to bridge vacancies left by 2020. This new vintage of Merlot was a pleasant surprise from a cycle filled with surprises that weren’t always pleasant. The fruit originally was sourced for Chaos Theory, however, it ultimately showed itself a promising candidate for standalone bottling. The resulting wine is the only non-Zin new entry into our 2021 lineup. We’re very pleased with it and trust you’ll see why if and when you give it a swirl.