{"product_id":"rootdown-merlot-cole-ranch-2021","title":"Rootdown Merlot Cole Ranch 2021","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Land\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe smallest American Viticultural Area in the United States contains exactly one vineyard, and the nearest neighboring vines are a mile and a half away and 800 feet downhill. That is Cole Ranch, approved in 1983 as the country's thirtieth AVA, tucked into an unnamed mountain valley between Ukiah and the Anderson Valley in Mendocino County. The valley runs roughly a mile long and half a mile across at its widest, ringed by Coast Range hills climbing from 1,400 to 1,600 feet. These vines sit at about 1,450 feet, 25 miles from the Pacific. Soils run from deep gravelly clay loam to shallow gravelly silty clay; the federal soil survey named Cole Loam, Maxwell Variant Clay, Pinole Gravelly Loam and Bearwallow Loam. Rainfall averages 40 to 45 inches a year against roughly 32 in Ukiah below, and the site runs cooler than its neighbors at both ends of the growing season.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Wine\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOne hundred percent Merlot, picked October 14, 2021 at 22.6 brix, which is a long hang for a site this cool. The block is dry-farmed on St. George rootstock, part of the original 1973 planting of Riesling, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. All of 1.8 tons came in. Fruit was fully destemmed and worked by pumpover, with malolactic finishing in neutral French oak; élevage was 100 percent neutral barrel with no additions. It landed at 13.5 percent alcohol, pH 3.56, total acidity 5.9 grams per liter, dry. Lucia reports 2021 as the surprise of the vineyard: clusters uniform, berries all one size, skins thickened by hangtime but neither bitter nor astringent. Statewide the drought year cut North Coast tonnage sharply and concentrated what survived. The glass gives bergamot and grapefruit peel over black cherry and red mulberry, then black tea, cocoa nib and pencil shavings, with firm tannin and genuinely high acid.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe People\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMike Lucia grew up in Healdsburg, took a viticulture degree from Fresno State, worked at Ridge, and became assistant winemaker at Copain in 2010, running the Tous Ensemble program until that winery sold. He started Rootdown in 2014 as a rosé project and widened it from there. In 2019 he acquired Cole Ranch, which means he did not buy a vineyard so much as an entire appellation. He farms it organically, works it with an electric tractor, and has grafted Jura varieties onto parts of the ranch, reasoning that the elevation, the cool nights and the gravelly soils have more in common with eastern France than with Napa. The 1973 Riesling, Cabernet and Merlot stayed. Of the last, Lucia is blunt: it thrives here, resists disease, and gives fruit worth taking seriously.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFood Pairing\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRoast duck breast with a sour-cherry pan sauce: the firm tannin cuts the fat cap while the acidity runs alongside the cherry instead of fighting it. Braised short ribs with olives and orange peel, where the bergamot and grapefruit notes lock onto the citrus and the tannin finds protein to bind to. A mushroom and farro gratin with thyme, in which the black tea and cocoa-nib earthiness reads as seasoning rather than fruit. Or a wedge of well-aged Comté, whose crystalline salt pulls that high acid into balance. At 13.5 percent it never tires the table. This is the Merlot for the people who gave up on Merlot, and the bottle to open in front of someone certain they already know what the grape does.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Natural","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51319567188191,"sku":null,"price":32.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0439\/7436\/1248\/files\/P9030248.jpg?v=1788538495","url":"https:\/\/denverwinemerchant.com\/products\/rootdown-merlot-cole-ranch-2021","provider":"Denver Wine Merchant","version":"1.0","type":"link"}