Lot 51 2023 Napa Carneros Merlot

WINE FUTURE BOTTLING JANUARY 2026 

SHIPPING FEBRUARY/MARCH 2026

Trust me on this one folks, run, don't walk to the buy line folks...hands down the best Merlot I have ever bottled!

Combine the legendary Hyde vineyard, no-expense-spared winemaking and the amazing 2023 vintage and you have the recipe for one of the greatest Merlot's you will ever have the pleasure of tasting!

Sourced from one the most expensive Merlot bottlings in Napa Valley, you are getting the same wine for just $199/case, not too much over the cost of a single bottle!

Again, trust me on this one folks, the wine is spectacular and there's not a lot to go around!

Exceptional, glass-staining color...deep garnet with an opaque core...looks more like a Cabernet than a Merlot. The bouquet is complex and lovely right out of the bottle with chocolate covered cherries jubilee and ripe raspberry/strawberry notes underpinned with fresh-turned black earth, toasted vanilla and coffee bean and gently haloed with the triumvirate of tobacco/leather/cedar notes of new French oak. As the bouquet opens up, it's complexed with notes of blueberry, blackberry pie and graham cracker, making for a spectacular aromatic experience. Plush-yet-powerful on entry with supple blue and black fruits wrapped around a woolly ball of minerally tannins that unfurl the massive, palate-staining structure that typifies the 2023's to reveal loads of mineral and racy red fruits that beautifully complex the darker fruit notes. Gobs of baby fat here but the finish has huge length and persistence finishing with ripe dark fruit and chocolate notes. WOW.

100% single-vineyard, Napa Carneros Merlot
~60% new French oak
14.5% alc.
~190 cases produced.