2006 Merlot
Released August 31, 2008
Suggested California retail: $48.00
“Shafer Vineyards: The maker of one of our very favorite merlots.”
– Andrew Dornenberg and Karen Page, The Washington Post
To deliver a wine loaded with color, extract and concentration, Shafer vineyard crews pass through the vine rows a number of times as harvest approaches cutting away less-ripe and under-developed fruit. This allows the vitality of the vine to focus on the remaining top-quality fruit. With added hang time, sugars and flavors increase markedly.
While this wine is officially designated with the Napa Valley appellation, its fruit is sourced from within just a three mile radius in the Valley’s cooler southern end. Half of our fruit for our Merlot comes from a hilly Shafer-owned vineyard we’ve informally dubbed, “School Bus,” located about a quarter mile due south of Stags Leap District. The remainder is cultivated within Stags Leap District by growers we’ve worked with closely for years.
Merlot is a finicky grape – a bit too much rain, a touch of frost early in the season – will easily result in less than ideal fruit. Early on each season our vineyard team culls any weaker fruit leaving only the best-of-the-best on the vine, ensuring that the wine exhibits lush, ripe, mouthfilling flavors that are true to varietal character.
Winemaker’s Notes
“This release is marked by its perfumy aromas of dark fruit that push out of the glass. The wine itself fills the mouth with opulent flavors of red and black berry fruit, licorice, spice, pepper, strawberry and plum. It’s a wine that pairs so well with food, it makes me hungry just tasting it,” says Fernandez.
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2006 Merlot – Reviews
“A classically styled Merlot, showing appealing aromas of red currant, fresh coffee bean and spice, with supple, well-structured plum, graphite and toasty leather flavors that firm up on the finish.”
– Wine Spectator
“One of California’s most popular luxury priced Merlots is also one of the state’s best. ... an opulent, juicy, tooth-purpling, even flamboyant wine, with spicy notes of crushed black cherry and strawberry all but billowing from the glass ... despite its epic scale, the wine somehow pulls together into a harmonious whole, which is no mean feat. If you love this style of wine and well-marbled beef you have next Saturday night covered.”
– Richard Nalley, Forbes.com
“… aromas of black cherries, dark soils, hints of licorice and scads of rich oak announce this wine’s serious intentions, and it continues in the mouth with deep, ripe, layered flavors whose slight tilt to ripeness is nothing more than we have seen in virtually all Shafer releases. The key, of course, is that Shafer wines have historically shown their ability to carry the style off to perfection, and, given this bottling’s depth of fruit and underlying solidity, it joins the exalted ranks of its predecessors.”
– Connoisseurs’ Guide to California Wine
“... exhibits fleshy, red and black currant, bay leaf ... Medium-bodied with sweet tannin, it should drink nicely for a decade.”
– Robert M. Parker, Jr., The Wine Advocate
“Inky garnet hue with a fuchsia rim. Heady blueberry and plum aromas with a secondary mineral nuance. Supple, mouth-filling black fruit laced with dusty, graphite accents. Dry, charred oak and an herbal spiciness cap the finish.”
– The Wine News
“… spicy, dark cherry and blackberry fruit aroma with notes of black olive and charred oak; full body; herbal, blackberry fruit flavors with oaky overtones ... Highly recommended.”
– California Grapevine
“A wine with bold fruit flavors and a seamless texture. Aromas and flavors of cherry, currant and spice. Earthy with a hint of caramel on the finish. (Highly recommended)”
– The Press Democrat
“Very big and balanced; classic Bordeaux-style Merlot; extremely long, balanced finish.”
– Sante
“ ... a step into the quality stratosphere ... with its immaculate structure and complexity and gorgeous flavours from Napa.”
– Gord Stimmell, Toronto Star