Sullivan Rutherford Estate 1090 Galleron Road St Helena, CA 94574 sullivanwine.com
Merlot Mastery $350 per person
A Conversation on Merlot $200 per person
Founder's Tasting $150
707.963.9646
Reservations are required
M erlot doesn’t suck. It never did. And Sullivan Rutherford Estate in the Napa Valley is out to prove it. Nutshell: Merlot is known for its soft texture, medium body and fruit-forward flavors such as plum, cherry and blackberry; it often displays chocolate or herbal notes, with its style varying by climate from earthy (cool) to juicy (warm). Want to know more? Read on. A brief history Sullivan Rutherford Estate in Napa Valley was established in 1972 by Jim Sullivan, who relocated his family from Southern California and soon enlisted wine consultant André Tchelistcheff to help develop vineyards based on soil science and climate, with the goal of making wine for family and friends. Four years later, the Judgment of Paris shined a spotlight on the region and its wines suddenly became globally in demand. Then in 1989, a J.O. Sullivan Merlot was included on the Wine Spectator Top 100 Wines list. The secret was out. The winery was purchased in 2018 by an investment group led by Juan Pablo Torres Padilla, and construction is underway on an onsite production facility that is expected to be operational by harvest this year. Getting started On a bright spring day, winemaker Jeff Cole greets us with a glass of 2024 Rosé of Merlot (bright, fresh, lively), which we sip while walking the property and learning about Sullivan’s commitment to Merlot. Unlike most Napa wineries, Sullivan has dedicated
bites curated by Sttupa Estate Chef Jim Leiken (the family-driven group recently acquired the property). “These are three very different wines,” Cole says to introduce our next direction. “The common thread is that I made them, and the fruit is from this property.” He guides us through the tasting, explaining the influences that climate and seasonality have on each vintage. The 2019 has a dusty, jammy nose and is ripe on the palate. Cole calls it the “crowd pleaser,” because “it just smells like it’s going to taste really good” (it does). The 2020 is lush. “This vintage was warm, so it will inherently be a little softer,” says Cole. It was also a fire year. Luckily, the Merlot was already in tank when the smoke arrived, though the winery lost a great deal of the rest of its harvest. Finally, the 2021 (my favorite) has bright fruit on the nose and a beautiful balance between energy and structure. Cole calls it “an absolute monster. I’d put this wine up against anybody’s Merlot. It’s still young and it has a long way to go but imagine it in five years.” I do — and I can’t wait. As we wind down this very informative and engaging experience, Cole leaves us with this directive, which guides his winemaking style and the company’s commitment to the variety: “If farmed correctly, on the right soils with the right winemaking interventions, Napa Valley Merlot can be as good as the best Merlots in the world.” I’m a believer. a
its prime vineyard parcels to Merlot (not Cabernet Sauvignon), with the goal of elevating the variety among discerning consumers. Sullivan’s “Merlot Mastery: Redefining Napa Valley Merlot” is an immersive journey. We start with a blind tasting featuring a library vintage of Sullivan and two comparable (similar in vintage and price point) European Merlots (one from Pomerol in France and one from Bolgheri in Italy). We’re encouraged to discuss the similarities and differences in each, then asked to guess which wine is which. We don’t exactly ace the exercise, but the experience leaves us with a better understanding of what Sullivan wines aspire to. “We’re ‘Napa’ in the sense we have ripeness and juiciness — a yum factor,” says Cole. “But we’re structurally more Old World: less jammy fruit-forwardness and more subtle fruit, minerality and herbal notes.” Diving deep Up next is a vertical tasting of three J.O. Sullivan Merlots 2019-2021, accompanied by a few refined Did You Know? In the movie Sideways, the reason Paul Giamatti’s character Miles Raymond refused to drink merlot was because he had a 1961 Château Cheval Blanc, a famed French red blend that is primarily merlot; it was the special wine he had saved to open with his now-ex-wife. It broke his heart to not share it with her. In the end, though, he proved merlot pairs well with a cheeseburger.
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