2012 | Leonetti Cellar | Merlot

The wine is dark and saturated. In the glass, the wine explodes with an ethereal, complex nose of cinnamon, plum, pomegranate, clove, and a hint of spring pine forest. On the palate, the wine has delicious fresh ripe fruit, reminiscent of berry pie filling. Incredible richness but with a stunning levity that lifts.

Reviews:

• Wine Advocate: The 2012 Merlot, which was already in bottle at the time of this tasting, offers an elegant, yet sexy style, with gorgeous black raspberry and creme de cassis fruit, toast, dried spices and licorice, with hints of background tobacco and green herbs, all emerging from the glass. Medium to full-bodied, plump, pure and layered, with a fabulous texture and a big finish, it’s a beautiful wine to drink over the coming decade or more.

• Wine Enthusiast: Leonetti’s Merlot is the only wine among their four annual releases to debut a year early. It’s a good thing with this wine, which is smooth and packed with rich black-cherry and cassis fruit flavors. Also in the blend are small amounts of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. The tannins are slightly granular, and soaked with cocoa flavor, giving it a pleasingly dark, toasty edge.

Producer Information

Leonetti Cellar is one of Walla Walla Valley's pioneering wine producers. It was established in 1977 with plantings of Cabernet Sauvignon and Riesling, and now makes a range of wines from Cabernet, Merlot, Sangiovese and Aglianico. The estate draws upon several key vineyards throughout Walla Walla. These cover a wealth of terroir, on different aspects and slopes, and with a wide range of soil types based on the Valley's silty loam soils. This gives Leonetti the ability to carefully select sites for each variety, and grapes are planted in the vineyards in which they are judged to do best. Several blocks in the Seven Hills and Leonetti vineyards have older vines, which are used to make the top wines. Leonetti uses mostly French oak for aging, but the Sangiovese is aged in neutral puncheons to retain its character. Leonetti Cellars has become one of the region's more premium producers, commanding high prices for its range of mostly Bordeaux-inspired wines. The Reserve Bordeaux Blend has further increased the brand's prestige in recent years, receiving a 100-point score from the famously influential US wine critic Robert Parker.

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