A wine for food and love! The wine is bursting at the seams with a variety of different cherries. Slight dusty old-world vibe combined with a new world raspberry fruit. PS, reminder “Carbonic” refers to a light style of fermentation versus it being carbonated. Pro tip, this is a great light red for hot summer days, we recommend putting a chill on it.
Only 100 cases produced of this incredible wine. Merlot is one of our favorite grapes we grow. A noble grape showcasing flavors or raspberry, blueberry, crème de cassis, a touch of leather and sandalwood from the 20% new French oak used during élevage. It smells like everything you want in Bordeaux varietal with luscious fruit, perfect acidity, and a silky finish.
On the nose all the delicious and harmonious blend of dark fruit and red fruit. More specifically blackberry, plum, and raspberry. Secondary aromas dark cacao and slightly peppery. Well integrated tannins and perfectly bottle aged for consumption today or you can lay this down for the next 3-7 years.
On the nose plush boysenberry, cherry, and crushed granite. A slight hint of rich cedar and loamy mushroom tones. On the palate the wine is robust firm cherry with flavors of pomegranate, mushroom, and undertones of five spice. The wine is rich and fleshy with soft tannins and juicy acidity. An expressive Cabernet Franc to say the least.
Syrah is the overachiever in the Santa Ynez Valley, often times without proper recognition of its beauty. Our climate and soil series are akin to producing world class wine. It comes down to the winemaking style that really allows this grape to blossom. Think of aromas of blackberry, white pepper, and crushed roses. On the palate raspberry, with secondary notes of clove and barrel spice. The wine has soft, delicate tannins, resulting from a winemaking style geared to keep the wine vivacious sans new oak.
In every vintage making a blend becomes an annual challenge, highlighting what pieces of the blend excelled, while honing in on our distinct style. 2009 is a prime example of that difficulty - all components were excellent. Thus resulting in a wine that is largly Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. These two exceeded our expectations and blended together to make a wine defined in a very classic bordelaise style. Chocolate, coffee, roasted red peppers, crushed black pepper, and tobacco spices permeate the nose. The mouth has a beautiful balance of cigar box and nutmeg-like spices, vanilla, and slight cedar. The merlot itself contributes a beautiful roundness of red fruits, raspberry and even pomegranate. The addition of Malbec and petite Verdot strengthens the mouthfeel and adds complexity to the finish. The biggest challenge in a great vintage as this is to showcase which varietals do well and do so with the signature Coquelicot Estate style. Well when all the parts are terrific, the pieces fit together, the only thing to do is welcome the fact that more will be made. A good thing, since this stellar vintage should be shared with all, we are proud of it
If you are a true “left bank” Bordeaux wine fan then not only will this estate blend impress, it will deceive you if inserted into a blind tasting against those overseas versions.