• 57% Merlot, 43% Tannat
• 11.2% abv
• 10 months neutral French oak
• Montgomery County, Maryland Appellation  
• 750 ML
• Descriptors: violet, pine, red plum, pomegranate, cacao

Unfined and Unfiltered (Some Sediment in Bottle is Normal)

Production Notes:

A new wine for us and quite possibly the only vintage we'll do this!  While overall the 2023 vintage was a great growing season, we ended up deciding not to produce a Montevideo wine (a top blend of our all of our estate reds), feeling that the style and ripeness just wasn't quite there.  That said, these grapes normally destined for this wine, ended up being a part of a few new, and slightly cheaper, wines like this co-ferment of Merlot and Tannat.  

While both of these grapes originally hail from southern France, they almost act as polar opposites here in our vineyard.  Merlot, one of the first reds to ripen, while fruity and juicy, can struggle with retaining sufficient acidity to our liking.  Tannat, on the other hand, harvests a week or two later generally and has no problem providing both freshness and tannin, however can be extremely suseptible to rot as the rather bulbous clusters become precariously fragile leading up to full ripeness. 

All that to say, in 2023, we decided to marry these two varieties together from the beginning, a co-fementation seeking the balance between acidity and ripeness.  After about a 15 maceration, the fruit was pressed to neutral french oak barrels they aged for 10 months before bottling in August 2024. 

Tasting Notes:

A lighter bodied red yet with a nice tannin finish that lingers on the mouth. 

Notes of violet and pine on the nose and lighter red fruit notes like red plum, fruit punch and pomegranate and a slight cacao finish.