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| Drinking Windows and Values |
| Community Tasting History |
| Community Tasting Notes (average 92.5 pts. and median of 93 pts. in 74 notes) - hiding notes with no text | | | Tasted by soyhead on 1/14/2022: Tasted immediately after the '97 and this wine is more powerful, but less evolved. not sure why its so much more powerful. amazingly this 25+ yrs old domestic merlot has the power to go quite some more time. (1570 views) | | | Tasted by europat55 on 4/19/2021 & rated 92 points: Nose: 91-92, Palate: 91-92 (Tasted blind) (1709 views) | | | Tasted by fdub on 11/12/2020 & rated 94 points: At it's peak. Really nice from magnum. Sea air, chocolate, and mineral. (1736 views) | | | Tasted by Jonathan T on 10/28/2020 & rated 96 points: The best bottle of the '95 Pahlmeyer Merlot I've had. This was a perfectly cellared bottle and, popped and poured, it tasted shockingly youthful for a 25-year-old wine. Full of delicious dried berry fruits, and meaty, peppery, savory salami. The nose exploded after some air with sweet cherry and wild mushrooms - almost an aged pinot nose. Had it with a simply seasoned grilled ribeye and the pairing was glorious. This bottle was wolfed down before it even had a chance to show any decline. (1764 views) | | | Tasted by ppandian on 7/3/2020 & rated 90 points: Dense, dark berries, structured, tannins red berries and balanced! Unbelievably good after 25 years in the bottle. Somewhat like a Zin, spicy and bramble.
A powerful Merlot. Hit the jackpot in this auction find! (1841 views) | | | Tasted by Pinotfanbg on 4/20/2020 & rated 90 points: Corovined and drank over three days. Purchased on release and stored in a 55 degree cellar. Still fresh with lots of life left to this. Dark purple color with no bricking in the color. This is aging on a very pronounced acid backbone which has preserved the fruit in the wine. Resolved, ripe but not silky tannins. Red fruited scent with a bit of funk on the nose. Bing cherry, acid and a bit of ripe firm tannins on the palate. Monochromatic, rather than complex palate. I don’t see this getting better, but it will not decline soon given the acidity this wine presents. Best with a good steak or other fatty meats. (1405 views) | | | Tasted by jbean007 on 2/7/2020 & rated 94 points: when i first open this it thought it was a bit thin on fruit, and then again the same after 3 hours. but then the next day, as we had some left, it was amazing, so i think the key here is significant amounts of aeration. it's still quite young despite the professional predictions on this. (1275 views) | | | Tasted by MC2 Wines on 11/10/2019: Charleston V - the wooden anniversary; 11/6/2019-11/10/2019 (Charleston, SC (various locations)): Wine #9 in our blind. Perhaps because I knew we had this wine in here I knew this was it. There's that great raspberry and red fruits and plushy and also pretty and just very tasty. Came across as quite young actually. This has many years left. Should really be stocking up on more of these, but they're not so easy to find. (1853 views) | | | Tasted by S1 on 11/10/2019: Charleston Offlineorama V; 11/7/2019-11/10/2019 (The Holy City): (blind) Fantastic. A real fooler with more dark fruit than one would expect. (1704 views) | | | Tasted by retired_and_roving on 3/2/2019: Q1 - 2019 Tasting - 1995 Vintage Napa Valley (NYC): 3rd/16 wines tasted double blind. Dark dense red color - no fading. Fragrant nose of red fruit. Beautiful dark red fruits (bing cherry) with some dusty tannins, velvety mouthfeel and a long persistent finish. Really compelling and my favorite wine of the tasting (3 pennies voted). Also the overall group favorite - winning the tasting. These '90's Pahlmeyer merlots really outperform - lovely wines. (1950 views) | | | Tasted by MC2 Wines on 3/2/2019: Q1 2019 Tasting - 1995 Napa (The Apt): Wine #3: A Pahlmeyer merlot has won our tasting group in the past and this was a bottle that I thought could do quite well (although didn't find any during our sourcing). I think I got the first pour and initially it was a touch disjointed. The acid was a bit overpowering and the fruit was more dominant. With a bit of time in the glass and some swirling that changed and it came into much more balance. Still those ripe juicy red fruits you'd expect of a Merlot. Touch more spice and woodlands. A clear favorite of the group (21 pennies) (1869 views) | | | Tasted by Jonathan T on 11/7/2018 & rated 94 points: This is my second bottle of the '95 Merlot (different purchase date) this year, and I recently also opened a '96 Pahlmeyer Merlot to compare. This was an excellent bottle. The cork was nicely intact and did not crumble when opening. This was clearly more delicious and luxurious than the '96, although it lacked some of the smoke and charcoal nuance that the '96 had. The alcohol was less noticeable and the flavor profile was bursting with sweet red fruit. Barely any sign of age and I have no qualms cellaring this wine for another 5-10 years. I love this wine. (1619 views) | | | Tasted by soyhead on 11/2/2018: nose - funky, mushroom
mouth - tannic, blackberry, slight funk, dark licorice, improved with time in glass. I liked the 95 Pahlmeyer Proprietary Red better. (1504 views) | | | Tasted by Taronti on 10/23/2018: The predominant sensation on first pouring is alcohol and this persists into the second hour. Given some time there is some mushroom and dark fruit. The body is clean enough with a medium but alcoholic finish. Should have drunk 10 years ago. (1453 views) | | | Tasted by Jonathan T on 7/26/2018 & rated 93 points: The condition of this bottle wasn’t quite as good as the last one I had, but I still really enjoyed this wine. A little more funky, savory, sautéed Japanese mushroom funk, but the sweetness of the fruit is still there. I think it’s still a notch below the 1996 and 1997, but it definitely belongs in that trio of best Merlots Helen Turley ever made. (1495 views) | | | Tasted by soyhead on 6/1/2018: tasted blind
nose- tomato paste, soy sauce, soil
mouth - very pure, delicious in fact, so harmonious. cornucopia of red fruit, tobacco, mint, long, almost a tad confected (therein should've been my hint). The fake news from the patriarch was this was Bordeaux [blend - latter part unspoken]. So I can be forgiven for thinking it a first growth. Alex suggested Margaux. On this evening the'95 beat out the '96. (1531 views) | | | Tasted by soyhead on 1/20/2018: Nose - turned earth, sun dried tomato, funkified fruit. Bordeaux nose
Mouth - complex, bitter red fruit spectrum, , almost digestif like in bitterness. Very impressive for a 20+ yr old merlot (1599 views) | | | Tasted by Dietrich16 on 1/7/2018 & rated 80 points: Bad cork. Good flavors, bright color red but getting cloudy. Alcoholic smell. Lost flavor but can still taste the depth of a great wine. (1522 views) | | | Tasted by MC2 Wines on 4/15/2017: Q2 2017 Tasting - The Anti-Sideways (aka Merlot) (The Apt): Wine #14: The third of the Pahlmeyers and a good example of how age really works for them. Bright cranberry and white pepper and I thought just generally tasty. (4 pennies) (2973 views) | | | Tasted by joshabramson on 12/17/2016 & rated 89 points: The fruit is mostly gone but the structure is still there, very dry on the finish. I don't care much for this bottle. Just feels like it's missing something for me. (2557 views) | | | Tasted by Jonathan T on 10/26/2016 & rated 95 points: Glorious. This is why we age our wines. I would place it a notch below the '96 and '97 Pahlmeyer Merlots, but it's not far off. It has less of the dried herbs and more wild mushroom and black truffle quality. The nose is still explosive and it has a sweet red fruit that I find in all of Helen Turley's Pahlmeyers, which is not a jammy sweet, but more of a caramelized sweet, peppery, fatty marinated ribeye juice sweet. If the bottle has pristine provenance, any of the Pahlmeyer Merlots and Reds from the '90s should still taste fresh, albeit evolved, as this one does today. But that is always a challenge when sourcing an older Pahlmeyer because you don't know if the original owner cared for it like a $30 or $40 bottle as it was originally priced. (2523 views) | | | Tasted by KenK on 9/20/2016 & rated 93 points: From a magnum and this was humming. Pretty red cherry fruit with a creamy fruit forward style. Loved it! (2605 views) | | | Tasted by soyhead on 7/29/2016: still showing very nicely (2607 views) | | | Tasted by DarinC on 6/21/2016 & rated 93 points: Similar to the bottle I opened a few months ago, but not as complex. A great bottle of Merlot in a style that's rarely made in Napa nowadays. (2101 views) | | | Tasted by DarinC on 4/3/2016 & rated 95 points: Perfect cork and fill. PnP Spectacular aged Merlot. At peak, but should hold for at least a couple years. True to the varietal and not overdone, like some of Pahlmeyer's modern vintages can be. Did not improve with air in the glass but held for several hours. Do not decant. (2081 views) | | | Only displaying the 25 most recent notes - click to see all notes for this wine... |
| Pahlmeyer Producer website
Jayson Pahlmeyer, recently joined by his daughter Cleo Pahlmeyer, have been producing highly sought-after, seductive, hedonistic wines since 1986. Pahlmeyer's flagship wine is the Proprietary Red, a Napa Valley Bordeaux blend. Chardonnay, Merlot and Pinot Noir round out this stunning portfolio. These wines are produced from exceptional mountain vineyards in the Napa Valley and Sonoma Coast, including the Pahlmeyer family’s Waters Ranch (Atlas Peak AVA) and Wayfarer Farm (Fort Ross/Seaview AVA). These vineyards, coupled with winemakers Kale Anderson and Bibiana Gonzalez Rave's passion and talent, turn out wines with power and finesse.MerlotMerlot is a dark blue–colored wine grape variety, that is used as both a blending grape and for varietal wines. The name Merlot is thought to be a diminutive of merle, the French name for the blackbird, probably a reference to the color of the grape. Its softness and "fleshiness", combined with its earlier ripening, makes Merlot a popular grape for blending with the sterner, later-ripening Cabernet Sauvignon, which tends to be higher in tannin.USAAmerican wine has been produced since the 1500s, with the first widespread production beginning in New Mexico in 1628. Today, wine production is undertaken in all fifty states, with California producing 84% of all U.S. wine. The continent of North America is home to several native species of grape, including Vitis labrusca, Vitis riparia, Vitis rotundifolia, and Vitis vulpina, but the wine-making industry is based almost entirely on the cultivation of the European Vitis vinifera, which was introduced by European settlers. With more than 1,100,000 acres (4,500 km2) under vine, the United States is the fourth-largest wine producing country in the world, after Italy, Spain, and France.California2021 vintage: "Unlike almost all other areas of the state, the Russian River Valley had higher than normal crops in 2021, which has made for a wine of greater generosity and fruit forwardness than some of its stablemates." - Morgan Twain-Peterson Napa Valley Napa Valley Wineries and Wine (Napa Valley Vintners)Napa ValleySt. Helena |
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