Luna Vineyards Napa Valley Merlot 2006

Our 2006 Napa Valley Merlot is an intense ruby red. The nose is filled with scents of tangerines, roses, and tobacco. The mid-palate is a tightly integrated mixture of blackberries, plums, and leather. Fine-grained tannins and great acidity hold the wine together as the finish melts into earthy cocoa and cassis. This Merlot will be at its peak from 2013 through 2016.

The 2006 Napa Valley Merlot combines grapes from three different Merlot vineyards. The well-known Stagecoach vineyard is located high above Oakville, at 1,500 feet. The vines here grow in the red volcanic Aiken Series soils. The fruit ripens fully, with a naturally high acid level, offering bright black and red fruit flavors. The Howell Mountain vineyard block reaches an elevation of 2,200 feet. This steeply sloped vineyard was planted in 1990, and struggles to produce two tons per acre. The third vineyard in the 2006 blend is in Carneros. The vines are planted one mile north of San Pablo Bay, in Napa’s coolest climatic region. These grapes grown here are the last to ripen and they have an amazingly dark, matte, black color, with very thick skins. Thanks to biodynamic farming, the canopy and fruit are naturally in balance, with a production of three tons per acre.

The harvest was very late in 2006, just as it was in 2005. The grapes in the 2006 Napa Valley Merlot were picked throughout the first two weeks of October, at an average of 26.2 degrees Brix. The wine was then fermented naturally for nineteen days, without the addition of yeasts or acids. Following the fermentation, all lots were macerated on their skins for twenty-five days. The wine spent twenty months in fifty percent new French oak barrels, before being bottled in July, 2008, without fining or filtration.