Tommy’s Wine Journal

This Napa Valley Merlot is produced from a very small production boutique style winery located on the east side of the town of Napa in Napa Valley. I have enjoyed the wines from this winery for a few vintages in a row and can testify to the quality of these estate grown and bottled wines and think they are an amazing steal for the price. The bouquet of this wine expresses big ripe Bing cherry notes, coco, cedar, spice, vanilla, and a very obvious hint of dill. The dill is quite odd to me because I recall these wines being aged in 100% French oak, and dill is usually a character that is found in wines that were aged in American oak. However, I actually enjoy this aroma as odd as it might seem!  I searched Farella’s web page for the tech sheet to find out about the barrel regime but apparently they haven’t updated the site with the new tech sheet for this new vintage. On the palate this wine has flavors reminiscent of cherry, chocolate, black raspberry, vanilla, cedar, and spice. This is a spicy Merlot flavor wise, but it does have a soft texture and appears to have very ripe tannins. This is a nice wine but the 2004 impressed me a bit more with it’s complexity both on the nose and on the palate.