Merlot

	Varietals:	100% Estate Merlot
	Vineyard:	Sams Vineyard
	Appellation:	Southern Oregon
	Sub Appellation:	Sams Valley
	Fermentation:	Open Top
	Wood:	French and American Oak
	Aging:	16 Months Oak Aging

WINEMAKER REPORT: This Merlot opens with aromas of lush violet-scented currants and decadent ripe black sweet cherries. This rich debut wine offers an elegant softness with concentrated flavors of vanilla, plum and black cherries accented by polished notes of caramel and mocha-coffee lingering effortlessly on a supple, smooth finish with lively acidity”

ACCOLADES
Silver Medal - 2008 Oregon Wine and Seafood Festival

MERLOT: The earliest recorded mention of Merlot was in the notes of a local Bordeaux official who in 1784 labeled wine made from the grape in the Libournais region as one of the area's best. The name comes from the French regional patois word "merlot", which means "young blackbird" ("merle" is the French word for several kinds of thrushes, including blackbirds); the naming came either because of the grape's beautiful dark-blue color, or due to blackbirds' fondness for grapes. By the 19th century it was being regularly planted in the Médoc on the "Left Bank" of the Gironde.

It was first recorded in Italy around Venice under the synonym Bordò in 1855. The grape was introduced to the Swiss, from Bordeaux, sometime in the 19th century and was recorded in the Swiss canton of Ticino between 1905 and 1910.

Researchers at University of California, Davis believe that the grape is an offspring of Cabernet Franc and is a sibling of Carménère.

Until 1993, the Chilean wine industry mistakenly sold a large quantity of wine made from the Carmenere grape as Merlot. In that year, genetic studies discovered that much of what had been grown as Merlot was actually Carmenere, an old French variety that had gone largely extinct in France due to its poor resistance to phylloxera, which as of 2006 does not exist in Chile.

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