Alazar's 2006 Merlot

Alazar's 2006 Merlot base material was harvested on 12th of Oct and the sugar level was 26.5.  It is fermented in stainless steel tanks, and after fermentation 25% was aged in French oak and 35% was aged in American oak for 6 months.

This was assembled to be the "significantly better than Hamilton" Merlot.  When we prepared to bottle this, one component was unsatisfactory-to-nasty.  I wanted to preserve the Clarksburg appellation and the "homage" to St Emilion and the old school CA Merlots that preceded the Merlot boom.

And I learned an ugly lesson that my choices were change the appellation to Lodi, or Yolo County or Sacramento or CA, none of which have the right cachet.  So we replaced that component with some 07 Clarksburg Petite Sirah, my favorite blending varietal for Bordeaux Rouge varietals.

And we kept increasing the 07 Petite, as it was still improving the wine, but we crossed the vintage line beyond the % wiggle room.  I liked the "amped up" wine enough to lose the vintage, but got to keep keep the Clarksburg, and still had miles to go before any varietal changes on the label.