($95): It’s hard to remember, but as recently as 1978, just two years after Dan and Margaret Duckhorn founded their eponymous winery, Merlot was rarely bottled in California as a varietal wine.  The grape was used primarily for blending — to “soften” Cabernet Sauvignon.  Duckhorn changed that.  Their single vineyard bottling from northern Napa Valley’s Three Palms Vineyard showed the heights that this grape, in the right hands, could achieve.  The vineyard takes its name from the three palm trees that arise in the middle of this rather warm part of Napa Valley.  The 2011 vintage was unusually cool for Napa, which resulted in a spectacular Three Palms Merlot.  Wonderfully aromatic, it’s a firm, young wine, with a riveting tension between fruitiness and herbal qualities.  The tannins are fine, not aggressive, and provide perfect structure and balance. It expands it the glass, with layers of herbal earthy nuances, not just fruit flavors.  Indeed, it’s the non-fruit elements that set this wine apart.  This tightly wound wine, which stops you in your tracts now, should evolve beautifully over the next decade, so there’s no rush to pull the cork.
97 Michael Apstein Apr 8, 2014