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SUPERIOR WINE ALERT!

Today’s wine deserves a special special alert, in recognition of its superb balance and beauty, and for the pure enjoyment that it brings. Whoever told you that Merlot was uncool is deluded. This is an amazing example of how great Merlot can be.

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Mission Codename: Trefethen Expression

Operative: Agent Red

Objective: Return to our good friends at Trefethen Family Vineyards and procure their legendary Merlot for our thirsty Operatives

Mission Status: Accomplished!

Current Winery: Trefethen Family Vineyards

Wine Subject: 2004 Estate Merlot

Winemaker: David Whitehouse Jr., Winemaster

Backgrounder:

Trefethen is a Wine Spies favorite winery. One sip of any of their wines reveals why. The Trefethen Family, with the help of winemaster David Whitehouse, has been making incredible wines for decades.

In 1976, Trefethen rocked the wine world by beating out French Chardonnays in the now famous Judgment of Paris. The French were outraged, and in 1979 they organized the World Wine Olympics where, they were certain, a French wine would win. Trefethen won the top award, earning “Top Chardonnay in the World”. Today, the Trefethen Family continues to make a variety of wines of distinction and remarkable quality.

Today, The Wine Spies bring you their fantastic 2004 Estate Merlot, a food-fabulous wine that delivers a uniquely delicious Trefethen expression of Napa Valley Merlot. Read Agent Red’s tasting notes, followed by his mission report, below

Wine Spies Tasting Profile:

Look – Deep and inky with a heart of solid garnet, this wine is bouncy and speedy when swirled, leaving behind legs that start off slow and then streak down the glass

Smell – Leading off with a bold rush of aromatic fresh berry pie, plum, cherry and cedar – followed by mild mint, fresh snow peas and pine needles

Feel – Fast and soft across the front of the tongue, then more round and supple on the mid-palate, leading to a mouth-coating and warming richness

Taste – Flavors of ripe black (blackberry and black cherry) and red (cherry) fruit, with hints of cedar and soft toasted oak. Components of sweet spices, cocoa, a tiny taste of pepper and herbaceous undertones complete a very well rounded wine.

Finish – This wine finishes long and smooth with lingering flavors of black cherry, plum, all leading to a mouthwatering slight dryness.

Conclusion – A fantastic expression of Merlot. Trefethen’s take on Merlot is one that must be experienced. Built to satisfy as a very food friendly wine I also enjoyed sipping it on its own.
Smooth and rich, easy drinking with mild tannins and a bright acidity, this is a wine that would pair beautifully with most holiday foods. Allow some additional decanting time and be rewarded with better balance and tastier fruit!

Mission Report:

Trefethen is now a Wine Spies favorite. What follows is our original mission report, from our first visit with Trefethen. Read it to learn more about Trefethen’s intriguing history.

_Agent White reporting – _ Finally, I get a mission to Napa Valley. Not just any mission mind you, one to Trefethen Family Vineyards.

Trefethen is a record-breaking, rule-breaking, innovating and inspiring winery.

I had the pleasure to spend an afternoon with Loren Trefethen recently and we toured the vineyards, tasted some grapes, enjoyed some wines and had a great conversation about the family’s rich history in the wine business.

What follows is a partial transcript of our lively discussion.

AGENT WHITE: A big thanks for hosting The Wine Spies today, LOREN. Our Operatives have been anticipating this for a while now.

LOREN TREFETHEN: My pleasure, Agent White. When do I get my own agent name?

WHITE: How about, “Agent Victorious”, in honor of the wine wins that your family has racked up over the years.

LOREN: (laughs) Sure, but only if its an agent name that I can share with my family. We’ve all been in this together since my grandfather purchased this land in 1968.

WHITE: That makes this year the 40th anniversary of your family’s estate. Impressive.

LOREN: Yes, and you know what? In 40 years we have never purchased fruit from any other vineyards in order to make our wines. In fact, today we are still the only American producer that is 100% Estate-only.

WHITE: My informants tell me that this land once belonged to another winery, Eshcol, in the 1800’s.

LOREN: They are right! This is the very site where Eshcol made wines. In 1890, Eshcol won a gold medal for their wine at the states first ever statewide viticultural fair. It was that fair, and Eshcol’s win, that first established California as a legitimate winemaking ‘region’.

WHITE: Until prohibition intervened, right?

LOREN: Exactly! Thereafter, Napa was home to mostly apricots, prunes and walnuts!

WHITE: Fast-forward a few years, and tell me about how your family got started in the wine business.

LOREN: Well, after Grandad purchased the land, he started growing grapes. My dad was in business school, but learning winemaking from a U.C. Davis winemaking textbook. Not the most traditional approach, but neither were his early winemaking experiments.

WHITE: Legend has it that he made his first wines in your grandmother’s basement? In steel garbage cans?

LOREN: Yeah. I remember my Dad telling me about forgetting that he left a lid sealed onto a can for a little too long…

WHITE: Oooh! KABOOM!?

LOREN: Indeed, KABOOM! He was scrubbing away pieces of grapes from all corners of that basement – for a long time!

WHITE: That was the early 70’s. Tell me about his first commercial wine.

LOREN: That came about in 1973. My Mom, a newlywed at the time, suggested that we call the winery, “Trefethen”. Everyone thought it was a terrible idea. even today, people struggle with the name, but it stuck.

WHITE: What happened in 1976?

LOREN: Just a little even that shook up the wine world! In ’76, Steven Spurrier, a British wine shop owner, living in France, visited America. Here, he found incredible wines, of course. He brought these back to France and organized a competition called, The Judgment of Paris. Our Chardonnay took gold…

WHITE: And that must have really pissed off the French!

LOREN: To say the least! They were infuriated, and insisted that the competition was rigged or set up to be too heavily in favor of the California wines. There were a few more Cali wines represented, but…

WHITE: But, three years later, the French organized a rematch!

LOREN: Yes. The World Wine Olympics were held in 1979. This time, French wines were ‘better represented’, and even outnumbered those from California. We had no plans to enter our wine this time around but found out that a friend had entered our Chardonnay.

WHITE: That’s when the French REALLY got mad!

LOREN: Too true. Our Chardonnay – a wine that was just our fourth vintage of Chard – ended up winning, and was declared the “Best Chardonnay in the World”.

WHITE: Quite something. That really stoked the fires back home, I’ll bet.

LOREN: All around the world, actually, but ours was really the first ‘cult wine’ in America. The wine was in such demand that we were actually asking for wine back from our distributors.

WHITE: Merci, Paris!

LOREN: Exactly!

WHITE: I just heard that your Cabernet Sauvignon just took Gold at the 2008 Concours Mondial de Bruxelles. Quite an achievement, congratulations.

LOREN: Thanks! We’re very proud of all of our wins. Mondial was a great one for us. 5,800 wines were judged by 240 International judges. To win among a field of so many other superior wines was humbling – and exhilarating!

WHITE: We’ll have to send Agent Red by to taste the 2004 with you!

LOREN: We look forward to meeting him.

WHITE: Thanks, again, for the tour, Loren. I’m sure that our Operatives will love having a chance to enjoy your wines.

LOREN: Thank you, White!

Wine Spies Vineyard Check:

The location of the Trefethen Family Vineyards can be seen in this satellite photo.