2016 Ehlers Estate Merlot St. Helena

Community Tasting Notes (9) Avg Score: 90.7 points

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View houstonjeff@hotmail.com's profile
  • Report Issue

  6/20/2022 - houstonjeff@hotmail.com Likes this wine: 93 Points

  Stellar wine! Drinking so well right now and has the potential to age for many more years.

  Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View Rich S's profile
  • Report Issue

  5/7/2021 - Rich S Does not like this wine: 84 Points

  This is probably the first bottle of Ehlers in a very long time that I genuinely did not really enjoy that much. Very ripe and syrupy sweet red fruit and vanilla oak on the nose and palate. Had a bit of canned cherry pie filling flavor with the sweet red fruits and baking spices. Lacking in sufficient acidity and tannin to keep the wine from feeling flabby. I am sure many would find this really tasty for a post dinner sipping wine (which was my intent as well) but it missed the mark for me.

  Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View Heynetty's profile
  • Report Issue

  1/18/2021 - Heynetty wrote:

  Tasted Blind
  
  A: Pale ruby
  N: Medium (+) intensity. Black cherry, red raspberry, Brandon says bay leaf (if you get this, it might be a green element), violet, sweet tobacco, vanilla, dill from others but not me, baking spice (nutmeg), coffee, chocolate powder
  P: Dry, high alcohol, medium + ripe tannins, medium (+) finish, medium, (+) intensity, medium acid, full body
  C: This wine is balanced between the ripe tannins and the acidity, it lacks in complexity but shows good intensity and length. Very good quality wine. Better examples would show some complexity and greater intensity and length.
  Guess: I didn't guess this one. I just couldn't figure it out.
  Mistakes: I think I should have gone for medium intensity color though it did seem very pale to me. Also I missed the BAY LEAF. Instead of pyrazine crunchy green pepper, one gets the green in the form of bay leaf for merlot. Bay leaf, bittersweet choc and a lot of plum are Brandon's merlot tells. some guessed Right Bank merlot but no. Right Bank would have CF blended so more pyrazine and also more brett expected on RB

  Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View TannicBeast's profile
  • Report Issue

  1/17/2021 - TannicBeast Likes this wine: 92 Points

  Tasted blind. Med (+) ruby w/ a garnet rim. Med. aromas of black plum, ripe red fruit, dried green herbs, tobacco, bittersweet chocolate, cinnamon, pencil shavings, ie. smells like new French oak. Dry, with med acidity, med (+), velvety tannins and med (+) to high alcohol (actually 14.5%). Full-bodied, with med (+) intensity, med (+) finish and med complexity. A very good quality, moderate climate Merlot, it straddles the fence between Old World and New World. I went Right Bank Bordeaux, but in hindsight this is too clean, too ripe and too oak-driven to be French. Drink now or over the next several years.

  Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View davidandrose's profile
  • Report Issue

  9/25/2020 - davidandrose Likes this wine: 90 Points

  After the fact so no detailed notes. Although I was concerned that it was tainted when opened, when we got to it a half hour later it was perfectly fine.
  Softer than either the switchback or Foley merlots we had afterwards, but more nuanced than the Faust cab that started the evening. A great Thursday night with friends we’ll dearly miss.

  Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

View all 9 Community Tasting Notes

Professional reviews have copyrights and you can view them here for your personal use only as private content. To view pro reviews you must either subscribe to a pre-integrated publication or manually enter reviews below. Learn more.