Petrified Forest Merlot Knights Valley California 2015

Since the beginning of my career, I have been a fan of California wines.  When the opportunity to work directly with wineries in Napa Valley came up I jumped at the chance. I helped get these wines distribution in the Virginia and D.C. markets and hopefully beyond.

Petrified Forest Vineyards may have had their first harvest in 2009, but it’s roots stretch back to 1986. Arriving in the Napa Valley that year to assume a position in the medical field, Ken Piters was to begin his long love affair with the land, the vineyards, and the special feeling that is Knights Valley. Ken and Susan Piters moved to their seventy-four-acre Knights Valley ranch in 1987. The property had been part of the Booth Ranch, a summer retreat for a San Francisco family. Its old farmhouse and barn, both built in the late 1870’s, still remain.

Made by Dan Fitzgerald, this small production wine (only 239 cases produced) is aged for 18 months in 50% New and 50% Used French Oak Barrels. Deep, dark and delicious, this is a great example of a high-class Merlot from the 2015 vintage. Intensive, full-bodied flavors. With a dark crimson hue, this statement wine is graced with scents of ripe red fruits, wild berries, rose petal, raw tobacco, and rustic spices. Dense and concentrated, the palate is filled with robust flavors of black plum, wild strawberry, ripe raspberry and cranberry. With air, the softer, sexier aspects of the wine reveal subtle hints of licorice, cardamom and clove, as well as classic hillside notes of fresh sage, mineral and toasted oak enroute to a lingering dry finish. As the flavors evolve, the profile is balanced with a velvety texture, bright acidity and firm backbone, which makes the wine taste confident when young and provides the resilience that will allow it to age gracefully for another decade.