" We don't sell the wine without touching the vine "
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La Jota Vineyard Merlot Howell Mountain is made from 100 percent Merlot.
Sourced from vineyards with pedigrees dating back to the 1800s, this wine continues to carry the torch of Howell Mountain’s greatness. e aromatics are lifted with plum, huckleberry and minerality leading the way. Bittersweet chocolate and dried herbs add the punctuation to an incredibly long balanced finish.
Due to a fantastic growing season on Howell Mountain, the La Jota Merlot shows incredible concentration while demonstrating finesse and balance on the palate. This red wine is an incredible example of mountain Merlot. This powerful mountain wine exhibits mocha and black cherry while on the palate one finds blackberry, and blueberry pie with volcanic minerality. This Red Wine has a Cork closure. Alcohol Content: 14.5% Pairs with leg of lamb, rich tomato based sauces and grilled vegetables. The La Jota Vineyard lies high upon a volcanic plateau, looking east over Napa Valley. Surrounded by pine, fir, oak and madrone trees, the estate stands out because of its cool, windswept climate. Here we look to vineyard blocks that produce soft-textured Merlot for wines of earlier approachability, and where the decomposed granite soils of our W.S. Keyes Vineyard impart a pop of bright fruit character and broader tannins. We hand-harvested grapes into small, 30-pound boxes to prevent crushing, and then we brought them to the winery for hand-sorting. After destemming and light crushing, the must was cold-soaked for gentle color, flavor and tannin extraction. Winemaker Chris Carpenter fermented the juice with native yeast in a combination of open and closed-top stainless steel tanks. Following gentle basket press, the wine underwent in-barrel malolactic fermentation, rounding the acidity and integrating the vanilla character of French oak. The wine was barrel-aged for 20 months and bottled unfined and unfiltered.
Reviews:
Refined, rich and powerfully structured flavors of cherry, currant and dried raspberry are tensile, supported by firm acidity and tannins. Ends with a minerally flourish on the firm finish, with notes of savory herbs. Best from 2022 through 2027.
-Wine Spectator 95 Points
In general, 2018 was a great vintage for this variety, and the deep purple-hued 2018 Merlot is stunning stuff. Lots of cassis, candied violets, scorched earth, and graphite notes give way to a medium to full-bodied, beautifully textured, elegant 2018 with polished tannins, no hard edges, and a great finish. It’s going to evolve for 15 years or more.
- Jeb Dunnuck 95 Points
A firm, silky red with blackberry, blueberry and hints of black and green olives and herbs. Medium-to full-bodied with fine, chewy tannins and a fruity finish. Drink or hold.
- James Suckling 95 Points
-75x150.jpg "Bernardins Muscat Beaumes Venise VDN 2023")
Bernardins Muscat Beaumes Venise VDN 100% Muscat petits grains (75% Blanc, 25% Red)
Copper/rose hue and ripe soft aromas of orange, spice and flowers. The wine is full bodied with the texture of silk and flavors of orange custard, white peach, pear, apricot, toffee and orange peel.
The vineyards and their terroir are the essence of our wines. This is where everything starts and where we focus our efforts throughout the year. You can’t make great wine without great grapes.
The viticulture is essentially done by hand. Five people work full-time in the vineyards. They are supplemented by seasonal employees who work during bunch thinning and the harvest in order to bring out the very best in our vines. Working by hand and the attention each vine gets are fundamental. Pruning, de-budding, trellising, leaf removal and picking are thus carried out by hand with the utmost care.
We prepare the soil by using good old-fashioned ploughing. Organic compost is made from grape marc (the discarded stalks and skins).
As a way of protecting the plants, we only use phytosanitary products when necessary and within strict guidelines by staggering the treatments appropriately, to minimise the amount of chemicals used. We prefer to use as much as possible manual and organic techniques . Leaving natural grass cover, removing buds and leaves from the vines, preserving biodiversity around the vineyard: olive, almond and cypress trees, wild rosemary and capers.
In the spirit of respecting traditional techniques and the best elements of modern technology, cellar manager Andrew Hall and his winemaker son Romain Hall take family traditions very seriously.
When making our wines, the Muscat de Beaumes de Venise plays a central role and requires great care. After picking the grapes by hand, we press them straightaway to ferment the juice without skins. We don’t add any yeasts and keep the alcoholic fermentation in check by temperature control. Vin Doux Naturel winemaking involves stopping fermentation to preserve the grapes’ natural sweetness. During vinification, we watch the vats day and night and add the fortifying spirit just at the right moment. At this stage, the wine’s final balance is at stake. The wine is then aged in stainless steel tanks for 6 months before bottling.
Review:
"Butterscotch and apricot jam aromas. A lighter vintage of this cuvée, but very fresh and drinkable, and the best Muscat of the vintage by far. 110g/L residual sugar. In conversion to organic. - Matt WALLS"
- Decanter (November 2024), 91 pts
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