Gundlach Bundschu | Estate Vineyard Merlot - NV

Merlot can have a reputation for being soft and wimpy, but the Merlot from Rhinefarm takes on a robust personality. It is distinctively dark and weighty with aromas and flavors of blueberries, black tea and cocoa and spice box.

Producer Information

Gundlach Bundschu, based in Sonoma, is one of California's oldest family-owned wineries. It makes a range of wines in Sonoma from regionally popular grape varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Zinfandel. The estate was founded in 1858 when Jacob Gundlach bought a 160-hectare (400-acre) property and named it Rhinefarm. Charles Bundschu joined the company a decade later, and soon married into the family. From the 1870s, the estate began experimenting with native rootstocks in the fight against phylloxera – these vines were only replanted in 1969. By 1906 the business was running a large-scale winery in San Francisco but this, along with a million gallons of wine, was destroyed in the earthquake that year, forcing Gundlach Bundschu to consolidate on a smaller scale. Gundlach Bundschu's estate vineyard, Rhinefarm, is in the southern reaches of the Sonoma Valley, on southwest-facing slopes in the foothills of the Mayacamas. It was expanded in 1997 and today there are 130 hectares (320 acres) of vineyards, broken up into 60 different plots. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Zinfandel are grown on the mountainside vineyards, while the valley floor sites are planted to Pinot Noir, Tempranillo, Chardonnay, Gewürztraminer and additional plots of Merlot. The wines are released under the Sonoma Coast, Sonoma County and Sonoma Valley AVAs. Gundlach Bundschu's flagship wine is the Vintage Reserve, a limited bottling of Cabernet Sauvignon that has a different label for each vintage. Around 40,000 cases of wine are produced each year.

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