In Carneros, the Spotlight Is Now Falling on Merlot

Not so long ago the name “Carneros” was automatically followed by “Chardonnay” or “Pinot Noir” in most wine fans’ minds. And that first association still holds true. If anything, Carneros Chardonnay is better than ever.

But what about Carneros Pinot Noir? At one point the phrase was ubiquitous to the point of cliche. In the late ‘80s Carneros was hailed as the promised land of New World Pinot; Saintsbury Winery used the slogan, “Beaune in the USA.” But recently other areas, such as the Russian River Valley, Sonoma Coast, Anderson Valley and Santa Lucia Highlands, have swiped the Pinot hype, while Carneros has seemed to lag.

Meanwhile, a Merlot movement was afoot. It began as a small but significant part of the Cabernet Sauvignon explosion that led to the Napa Valley’s identity as a prominent New World outpost of Bordeaux. In the brave new world post-phylloxera and post-French paradox, Carneros Merlot has suddenly (in viticultural time) come on strong.

California’s first varietal Merlot was Martini’s blend from the 1968 and ’69 vintages, released in 1971. Sterling released its ’69 Merlot the same year. Most subsequent plantings were intended for blending with Cabernet, but a vogue for varietal Merlots in the mid-1980s gave the varietal recognition and credibility with consumers.

By the late ‘90s, Merlot had its own varietal niche. During the dynamic reorganization of Napa Valley vineyards in that period (largely the result of phylloxera), Merlot was increasingly displaced from prime Cabernet sites in the upper valley and, like Chardonnay, concentrated in the southern valley.

Producers bottling Napa Valley Merlots began to notice that vineyards in cooler locations, especially in wind-whipped Carneros, gave bright, clear fruit with better acidity and firmer tannin than the warmer up-valley sites. That was demonstrated by the first Carneros Merlot bottlings in 1979 and ‘80, by Martin Ray from Winery Lake grapes, and it became increasingly apparent as new plantings came into production.

Currently about 10% of Carneros is planted to Merlot. In the 2001 vintage more than two dozen producers bottled Carneros Merlots, and many more Merlots labeled Napa Valley, Sonoma Valley or Sonoma County are substantially from Carneros vineyards.

The cornerstone planting is Truchard Vineyard. Tony and Jo Ann Truchard planted their first vines in 1974, when the Carneros hills were still mostly grassland. When they produced their first commercial wines 15 years later, a lovely Merlot was among them. It was well received as an inaugural release, but no one guessed its significance. Only in hindsight has it become clear that the ’89 Truchard was the last signpost before the turnoff to an alternate future for Carneros.

The Truchards’ first winemaker (1989-’94) was Michael Havens, a former UC Davis literature professor who was already well known for the excellent Merlots bottled at his own Havens Wine Cellars. Starting with the 1989 Truchard estate Merlots, Havens made several Carneros Merlots in each vintage, which was several more than just about anybody at that time.

Before Havens, Carneros Merlot was a nonentity. By the mid-’90s it was a recognizable phenomenon, and Havens was the catalyst.

“I always thought Carneros was good for Merlot for the same reasons it was thought to be good for Chardonnay and Pinot Noir,” Havens said while tapping some barrels at Havens Wine Cellars near Yountville one afternoon this March, “limiting soils, cooler peak temperatures, a longer season with longer hang time.”

His voice came from deep in the barrel stacks, where he was dipping his “thief” into barrels of ’01 Merlot from various Carneros vineyards he uses. He emerged from the maze of barrels with a lab beaker full of garnet wine, his ’01 reserve blend component from Hyde Vineyard. Its perfume was ravishing and clear, like a rose garden as the day begins to warm. The flavors were layered, from bright red fruit to deeper black notes, and texture balanced plush fruit and fine tannin with a real grip.

We went on to taste other ‘01s from the Truchard and Beau Terroir vineyards, both located near Hyde in the relatively warm northern part of Carneros. Each was a slightly different expression. Differences in soil, exposure, plant material and cultivation translated into a range of aromatic intensities, red and black fruit flavors, acid profiles and tannin textures. Yet they were all complementary.

“I believe in blending different sites to obtain complexity,” said Havens. “Each site shows a different aspect of Carneros Merlot, and they have enough in common that they fit together naturally.”

What they had in common was clear, high-toned fruit with a hint of ripe herbaceous character that signaled Merlot; and, perhaps most important, firm structure and definition. In contrast to the typically loose, floppy, mouthful-of-grapes character of many California Merlots, each of these wines had a beginning, a middle and an end. I found myself recalling barrel tasting sessions in Pomerol and St. Emilion--this, I felt, was classic Merlot, a very different animal from the soft, pulpy, grape-syrup Merlots that inhabit supermarket shelves.

Of course, not all of Carneros is suitable for Merlot. The Merlot vine has its problems in a cool climate. Limited growth and crop level are essential to ripen the fruit, and it needs substantial hang time to develop mature tannins and flavors. So the vine needs stable weather to set an even crop, and a relatively warm, sheltered location with yield-limiting soils that produce grapes with more concentrated, deeply colored fruit.

Congress Valley, where Truchard is the largest grower, is an elevated sun trap in the northern part of the district just west of Napa, where the ground begins to rise into the Mayacamas foothills. The terrain is like a rumpled blanket, with an array of exposures and soils, mostly uplifted marine sediments with clay, interfolded with well-drained volcanic deposits. It’s suitable for a number of grape varieties--there are even locations where Cabernet ripens fairly reliably.

There is already talk of a Congress Valley American Viticultural Area. Observers note the same kind of buzz around Congress Valley that attended Stags Leap in the early 1980s, so the next few vintages may well provide the rare opportunity to watch--and taste along with--the creation of an AVA.

The sloping plateau in the Duhig Road area of east-central Carneros is another notable Merlot area. Its soils are more typical of Carneros in general: shallow clay loams formed from ancient marine sediments. Clos Pegase, Cuvaison and Shafer Vineyards have substantial Merlot plantings there.

Closer to the water, where the whole of Carneros seems to slope into the northern reach of San Francisco Bay like a vast boat ramp, the historic Las Amigas Vineyard--once famous for Pinot Noir--is showing new promise as an outstanding Merlot site. The vineyard is now owned by grower Andy Beckstoffer. He continues to grow Pinot, but the spotlight is increasingly on his Merlot vines.

Las Amigas has so far yielded such luscious, surprisingly powerful vineyard designates as the ’99 Merryvale and Behrens & Hitchcock Las Amigas bottlings.

There are also proven Merlot sites on the Sonoma side. Sangiacomo Vineyards grows Merlot at the Donnell and Kiser ranches in sheltered spots with shallow clay-loam soils where Carneros begins to morph into Sonoma Valley. Ravenswood’s “Sangiacomo” Merlot is an outstanding example of what that area can produce.

Havens believes the shallow, clay-based soils are as important as the cool climate. “It’s a good match of situation and grape variety,” he says. “In France, Chile, everywhere in the world good Merlot is produced, it grows on clay soils. The Pomerol plateau, where Petrus is, is almost pure clay. It’s a friend to Merlot because it gradually metes out the moisture which allows grapes to ripen over a long period and get phenolic ripeness.”

A significant endorsement for Carneros Merlot came with the recent announcement that grower Larry Hyde (whose Merlot goes primarily to Michael Havens, Joseph Phelps and Flora Springs) has entered a partnership with Domaine de la Romanee-Conti managing director Aubert de Villaine to produce wines from Hyde Vineyard fruit under the HdV label (the first wines were produced in 2000). The varietal roster includes Chardonnay, of course, and a Merlot-Cabernet Sauvignon blend--but no Pinot Noir.

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Smith is writer-at-large for Wine & Spirits magazine.