The 2015 Mt. Brave Merlot isn’t cheap at its $80 retail price, but it is worth it. You can find it for as low as $65 on wine-searcher.com (scroll to the bottom for some options). It is a substantial wine with layer upon layer of complexity. Give it a good two to three hours in the decanter now and it’ll sing for the following two days. This makes it contemplative wine as well, meaning that if you can take nurse small pours over a long time and think about what you’re smelling and tasting throughout, then you’ll go through an intellectual exercise that demonstrates why wine can be magical: it’s a performance art just like ballet or an orchestra. It moves, it sings and it dances. Try this wine because merlot can be great, and this one is.

Wine of the Week The transporting nose is fresh with eucalyptus and fresh mint leaf and anchored by denser aromas of kirsch-filled chocolate ganache and a hint of blueberry. These turn to a magnificently structured palate of black cherry, mulberry, and purple plum, with a touch of fenugreek and mineral at the edges, that is absolutely impossible to stop drinking right now, but that also has the potential to age for more than a decade. Still, I’d pop the cork in the short term: The fruit here is so irresistible, and at such a beautiful stage of its evolution, that I wouldn’t want to miss the up-front pleasures it offers right now. This is the wine to serve to people who claim to hate Merlot: If they have any chance of being cured of that issue, this is the wine to do it.

The merlots from mountain-grown grapes are the best, as this one from atop Napa Valley’s Mt. Veeder will attest. Because of the elevation and rocky slopes, there is a lot of labor and care devoted to this wine. Plum, blueberry and blackberry flavors laced with mocha highlight this outstanding merlot.

FOOD PAIRINGS FOR MERLOT LOVERS #MERLOTME #WINEPW Medium purple in color with a hint of orange at the rim. Medium+ acidity, body, and tannins. On the palate blueberry, black cherry, hints of licorice, mocha, and toasted oak. The mouthfeel is soft and round. Nicely balanced and complex. Food Pairing: The lamb chops with rosemary and garlic were perfect with the fruity and earthy Merlot. The butternut squash kale salad with the sweetness of the roasted squash, dried tart cherries and the earthy bitter notes of the kale was an amazing pairing with the wine, hitting every congruent note also found in the wine. Recipe + Butternut Squash and Kale Salad recipe below.

This is soooo f*cking young. And soooo f*cking good. A.

Dark garnet in color, this wine smells of sweet cherry and plum and a hint of oak. In the mouth, sweet cherry and plum flavors are wrapped in a tight fist of fine grained tannins. Excellent acidity and length. After a year or three, this wine will likely open up beautifully. 9.0

I popped this bottle and sipped without looking at what the grape was and thought this is a good Cab. Then I turned it around and saw that it was a Merlot. Well, that’s weird. This is a good wine but very expensive with not a lot of complexity; it’s powerful with significant tannins and 14.5% alcohol with earthy tones and plum and blackberry aromas. The oak on the wine is pretty upfront and it’s a bit big for a Merlot. It might benefit from more aging, but if you are looking for a more elegant Merlot from Cali, this isn't it. If you like classic, full bodied Cali Merlot, this is your wine. Rating - B.

Merlot has had a bad name since the release of the movie Sideways in 2004. Paul Giamatti's character, Miles' hatred for the varietal caused a measurable decrease in its sales. Pinot noir, Miles' favorite, in contrast, saw sales increase by 16%. Miles' feelings aside, merlot doesn't deserve to be so maligned. In the hands of a deft winemaker, it can make a remarkable wine. Today, we'll begin to look at how the variety is used in wines made by famed Napa winemaker, Chris Carpenter. Chris is so passionate about merlot that he makes it for three wineries, from three different regions across two continents. Our exploration of Chris' merlot will start with this wine: 2014 Mt. Veeder Merlot produced & bottled by Mt. Brave (Oakville, California). This wine is 100% merlot from the Mt. Brave Vineyard in the Mt. Veeder AVA within Napa Valley. Following fermentation, the wine was aged for 19 months in French oak. It comes in at 14.5% ABV. The wine showed a dark ruby almost opaque color. Blackberry, cassis, raspberry, plum, vanilla and oak each arrived on the jammy nose. Blackberry, raspberry preserves, black cherry, plum, mocha, oak and hints of licorice followed on the palate where the licorice melded with the berry fruit as the wine opened up. The wine exhibited excellent structure and good length, along with well-integrated tannins. This wine would pair well with a marinated and grilled flank steak with chimichurri.

Top Wines of 2017 Two of my top wines of 2017 were made by the same winemaker with the same grape variety but for two different wineries on two different continents. Winemaker, Chris Carpenter's passion for merlot was on full display with the 2014 Mt. Veeder Merlot produced & bottled by Mt. Brave and the 2014 The Revivalist Merlot McLaren Vale vinted & bottled by Hickinbotham Clarendon Vineyard.

Merlot Can be Great – Try These from Winemaker Chris Carpenter This was my favorite, and a close second for Cheri. Another wine with a dark, pure ruby color, it was very close to the La Jota in appearance. The nose was of dark fruit, tending toward blue fruit. There was some bramble and woodiness as well. Just a touch though. This full bodied wine has an incredible, pure blue fruit experience on the palate. There were distinct blueberry flavors. Brisk tannins and great acid keep this fresh, but it is the laser beam focus of fruit which makes it stand out. It is incredibly long. Hands down the best of three great wines in my opinion. $75 SRP, and definitely worth it. That is why we have our own opinions however, as Cheri thought a bit differently….

The Top 25 Wines of 2017! 2. 2014 Mt. Brave Mt. Veeder Merlot – $75 – if you have dismissed Merlot try this and change your mind.

Wine: New Year, New Shopping List Another fabulous Merlot, worthy of its price.

Celebrate National Merlot Day With These Wines Napa’s mountain AVAs are ideal for growing structured, concentrated Merlot with character. Winemaker Chris Carpenter embraces this character, crafting powerful, yet graceful Merlot with layers of sweet clove, nutmeg, and cedar melding with woody herbs and red fruit from Mount Veeder in Mount Brave Merlot and from Howell Mountain, La Jota Merlot with pencil lead, black cherry and dark chocolate.

None of these examples is a wimpy wine, as some people think of merlot, but the Mt. Brave Merlot 2014, Mt. Veeder, Napa Valley, pretty much takes the prize for structure. Made from grapes grown between 1,400 and 1,800 feet in elevation — it’s the old Chateau Potelle property — this 100 percent varietal wine aged 19 months in French oak, 93 percent new barrels. The wine displays another inky-black-purple hue with a violet rim; every aspect is intense and concentrated, from the tightly-wound notes of black currants, blueberries and (just a hint) boysenberry to the piercing granitic-and-graphite minerality to its rigorous tannins permeated by iodine, iron and loam. Give it a few minutes in the glass, and it calls up the dusty herbaceous quality of dried thyme and rosemary (with a touch of rosemary’s slightly astringent woodsy nature) that I associate with high-elevation red wines, all of these elements energized and bound by keen acidity; the finish feels chiseled from stone. 14.5 percent alcohol. Production was 532 cases. Winemaker was Chris Carpenter. This is a wine built to age; try from 2019 or ’20 through 2030 to ’34, properly stored. Excellent.

Just the right amounts of just about everything; worth the short-term hit to your wallet. A

The quiet wines of Winter Solstice A 2012 Mt. Brave Mt. Veeder Napa merlot evoked the first time I stopped to smell the roses (came to appreciate the magic and possibilities of Napa reds). My first experiences of yore were from the similar wines of Peter Rubissow and his father George’s classic Les Trompettes, a blend of Mt. Veeder merlot and cabernet Franc. Rubissow was one of my early mentors. The Mt. Brave has power, depth, history and a long evolution from bottle to decanter to glass to mouth. Redwood, eucalyptus, dark earth, bold cranberry and dried cherries evoke the seasonal spirit and simply beg for lamb chops with mint jelly.

Winemaker Chris Carpenter offers malbec lovers an intense, juicy expression of the variety, with bright acidity and lush raspberry on the mid-palate and long finish. It's a terrific malbec with plenty of backbone and lots of red fruit.

Mt. Brave's 2008 Merlot presents a seamless medley of boysenberry, black cherry, and smoky cocoa aromas, as well as a lengthy procession of supple cherry, dark chocolate, and crème brûlée flavors.

The unique terroir of the high elevation Mt. Brave vineyard (1,400 to 1,800 feet) creates distinct concentrated flavors of black cherry, black berry, white pepper and eucalyptus for this Cabernet Franc. Balanced acidity and tannin combine with subtle vanilla characters to produce a wine with a long finish.

The top Napa Valley wines from 2018

Following up on my last column, we had covered four wines from our tasting at the Spire Collection. Here are the final five we enjoyed… Next up was the 2014 Mt. Brave Cabernet Franc. Strong berry on the nose, the taste was fruity (boysenberry) and quite approachable. Also detected aromas of saddle and tastes of smoked meats. Very enjoyable.

Raise a glass of red wine to Dad From Mount Veeder, Mount Brave Cabernet Sauvignon and La Jota Cabernet Sauvignon from Howell Mountain both deliver blue and black fruit, woody herb, truffle, and warm spice.

Wine of incredible quality in a breathtaking setting Black and red berry flavors with hints of herb, Asian spice, espresso and toast combining with floral notes, weight and a wonderful finish.

At the end of each year, I look back over the wines I've tasted and put together a list of the best of the year. The Top 5 Wines of 2017 featured selections from California, Washington, Virginia and Australia. This year's top wines come from California, Australia and Italy. Here they are in no particular order. Chris Carpenter also mades a mean cabernet sauvignon. This example for Mt. Veeder in the Napa Valley earned a well-deserved spot on this list - the 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon* produced & bottled by Mt. Brave.

The wine showed a dark ruby almost opaque color. Blackberry, cassis, raspberry, vanilla, licorice, mossy earth, oak and eucalyptus all arrived on a nose dominated by dark berry fruit. Blackberry, cassis, raspberry jam, vanilla, plum, mossy earth, licorice, oak and eucalyptus followed through on the palate with the jammy foreshadowing of the nose. The wine exhibited excellent structure and length, along with velvety tannins. This lushly-textured wine would pair classically with a standing rib roast or Beef Wellington.