Palate
The 2019 Meravina is a pretty and dense garnet red in the glass, and the nose is complex — delicate sniffs will reveal some red-fruited brightness, while a deeper breath will reveal violets, cassis, orange peel, mocha, fig, tobacco, and lots of juicy dark fruits. The palate opens with juicy red plum and currant, and broadens into an expansive midpalate with floral notes, anise, black plum, and espresso. There’s enough tannin here to provide weight and structure, but it’s never aggressive, and the finish is long, and pleasing with subtle barrel hints (perhaps surprising given the very restrained oak profile).
Winemaking
Meravina, like its ‘sister’ wine Aprica, is a new wine for us in the 2019 vintage, and we added it to meet two important needs. First, we wanted to offer a Bordeaux-style blend at an accessible price. Second, natural variation in the aging process leads to some barrels within a given lot inevitably that taste, smell, or are texturally better than others. While we don’t view Meravina as a “second label” or a “declassified” wine, it does let us taste on a barrel-by-barrel basis and allocate the “excellent” barrels and the “really good” barrels accordingly. Rest assured that Meravina is not simply “leftovers” — it is as meticulously made and blended as all our wines!
The name “Meravina” comes from the Latin terms merum, meaning “pure,” and vinum, meaning “wine.” We have always been entranced by the pure expressions of aroma and flavor that can be found in traditional Bordeaux varieties like Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon in Washington state, and this wine will always seek to champion those, with fruit from some of Washington’s best vineyards.
