This Merlot is bright, balanced, and just fruity enough
This fruit-forward Merlot showcases why terroir is an important aspect when considering wines.
Chateau Ste. Michelle Merlot Columbia Valley, Wash.
$15.99
13.5% alcohol
PLCB Item #6963
Sale price through Sept. 1; regularly $19.99
We hear a lot about “terroir” in the wine world, and for good reason. Every facet of a region’s geography — from its climate to its terrain and even its soil composition — has a taste-able effect on the wine in the glass. Take this well-balanced merlot, for instance. It’s a wine whose flavor density, aromatic profile, and luscious texture all depend on the growing conditions of its region of origin: Washington’s Columbia Valley.
Washington’s southern border with Oregon hugs the Columbia river for most of its westernmost length, from where the Columbia Gorge pierces the Cascade mountains to where it flows into the Pacific near Portland. A glance at a normal map might suggest this cool, rainy zone to be the “Columbia Valley” where the grapes for wines like this one are grown, but this is not the case. The Columbia Valley is a formal “American Viticultural Area” and a wine map shows that all of its terrain lies upriver in the eastern half of the state, covering the drainage basin of Columbia above the gorge. Columbia Valley AVA’s boundaries do extend into northern Oregon, but nowhere near the coast, and the majority of its area falls in Washington. Indeed, this appellation encompasses 99% of Washington’s vineyards. This part of Washington is not green and rainy. It is dry and dusty cow country, an arid plateau that depends on irrigation to make winegrowing possible.
In a glass of this merlot, we can smell the overt ripeness of its fruit, like black cherries and wild blueberries, a characteristic of wines whose grapes matured with ample sunshine under cloud-free skies. But after taking a sip, the wine’s zing of bright acidity communicates the evening temperature drop that comes after sundown in near-desert regions like this one. Merlot performs particularly well in eastern Washington, shaking off the excessive jamminess that can plague it in California. Here, we get more of the structure, tannin, and food-friendliness that made the grape famous in the wines of its native Bordeaux in France. All of the things that make this wine special though are not facets of this grape, they’re aspects of its terroir — literally the taste of the place where it was grown.
Also available at:
Kreston Wine & Spirits in Wilmington, $12.90
Total Wine & More in Wilmington and Claymont, Del., $12.99
Wine Warehouse in Mantua, $13.98