1999 Merryvale Profile

Community Tasting Notes (114) Avg Score: 91.4 points

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  4/14/2024 - querilant Likes this wine: 93 Points

  Five years since I had the first bottle. This is a fantastic Napa Valley red. Left bank Bordeaux style. Dark red. Cherries, berries, cedar and chocolate in the nose. Very full bodied and complex. Softish tannins.

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  3/24/2024 - ppmm wrote:

  Had low expectations for this bottle, which was kept from release until 2014 in a steel lockbox in an unconditioned San Francisco garage, then for another decade in temp-controlled storage. But, surprise surprise, it’s in very good shape. Stood up 24 hrs and then decanted gently, this has good color, ruby to garnet, from the get-go. Takes about half an hour to show anything from behind some remaining tannin, and the first signals are faint, but by two hours in, this is a different wine, with a lively nose that combines a bit of black cherry and currant fruit with tobacco and a lot of olive. The tapenade aroma remains dominant throughout, but each small glass seems more exuberant and a little more complex than the one before it. Paired nicely with Sami Tamimi’s oven-roasted lamb shawarma with yogurt tahini sauce and a tomato-cucumber salad. Fog for the win.

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  1/27/2024 - edjBoca Likes this wine: 92 Points

  Smooth with only mild structure to balance the medium to full bodied fruit. Good balance.....drink with a 20 minute decant and clean out the bottle.

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  6/25/2023 - Purple Tooth wrote: 92 Points

  A really great showing for a 1999 Napa wine, with obvious resemblance to a left bank Bordeaux. Strong whiff of earth, cocoa, and sweet cedar wood flowed by a dry wine, resembling an old Pauillac or St. Julien from a classic vintage. With more time, the wine showed the greener tobacco notes associated with a cool vintage cabernet or a heavy dose of Cabernet Franc. A real head turning experience from a california wine from an overlooked vintage. Strarted declining and showing hints of raisin after 2 hours...Still delicious and all ready to go. Dont miss if you have it. DRINK

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  6/2/2023 - wineappreciation wrote: 91 Points

  Blackberry, wilted currant, notes of leather and sous bois; mature and aged, some sense of stewed fruit remaining, with a softness that is still pleasing

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