Sunce Winery & Vineyard, Winemaker’s Reserve Meritage 2009, California

Tasting Note: When you think of meritage blends, you often think big, brooding, inky wines, but this well-balanced, medium-intensity meritage shows you what this style looks like in a cooler vintage and with more ripeness restraint.

Medium -intensity ruby in color, this wine has an aromatic, pronounced-intensity nose of raspberry, blueberry, bramble, blackberry puree, bruised violet petal, red cherry and clove baking spice.

On the palate the dry, medium-bodied meritage delivers tart, medium-intensity, red-and-black fruit flavors suggested on the nose supported by medium acidity and slightly-velvety, medium tannin.

There is mostly balance among all the components of the wine, however there are tart elements that overpower the fruit.

A winemaker must make wine even in cooler vintages, so the backstory of the wine is understood.

Bottle Note: Sunce is a family winery located in Russian River Valley appellation of Sonoma County. We specialize in small lots of varietal wine and unique blends. We realize it is a choice how to affect the passage of time, perhaps to find eternity in a grain of sand or in a drop of wine. Frane’s 2009 reserve meritage contains four of the five Bordeaux varietals: 40% Pleasant Hill Vineyard’s El Dorado County cabernet sauvignon, 25% King’s merlot from Sonoma Valley, 22% Mazzera’s Dry Creek Valley cabernet franc and 13% petite verdot from St. Olof Lake County vineyard. Each vineyard block contributes its unique character; the cab sauv establishes a firm fruit structure, the merlot adds soft plushness, the cab franc brings in a medley of peppers and spice and the petite verdot rounds out the finish with a depth and complexity of black fruit components. Only 16 barrels made. Franicevic Series.