There’s a certain rebellious thrill to matching a big wine with a small occasion. In this case, the small occasion was 5 PM on a workday. And the big wine was the 2021 Merlot from Captûre Wines’ Pine Mountain estate.*
I ordered this glass as a #MerlotThursday splurge after narrowly surviving (an exaggeration, but only barely) last week’s encounter with a miserable grocery-store Merlot. I grabbed a barstool at The Wine Authority and set aside an hour to savor my luxurious treat.
It’s incredibly saturated in color–almost black, but with brilliant red shadows and darkly staining purplish tears. I cannot remember the last time I had a wine this dense in color and in body. Its specific gravity is so high that even lifting the glass seems to take more than the usual amount of effort.
The nose is overall youthful and a little restrained. Ripe blackberry, black plum, and blueberry aromas, most noticeably–all seasoned with a whiff of cocoa and baking spice. Nostril-tingling alcohol at 14.2%. It’s full-bodied, duh.
Captûre Wines credits their low-yielding, high-altitude vines for the intensity of their mountain fruit. When the doctor asks if you’re getting your five-a-day, this is the kind of wine you think of and wonder if it counts.
The marketing materials for Captûre’s 3000-meter vineyards speak to the inhospitability of this terrain to life forms other than grapes. Sample line: “The windswept mountaintop is like a moonscape.”
Well, I’ll see their Mayacamas moonscape and raise them another space-inspired simile. This Merlot is like a black hole. It’s dark, powerful, and so dense that almost nothing can escape from its gravitational pull.
At first, it’s hard to detect subtle aromas under the velvety blackness of its fruit. But they’re there, in infinitely compressed form. This thick wine is slow and sluggish until, like a newborn galaxy, it unspools inside your mouth.
An hour decant helps, too: Very dark black and blue berries eventually yield to fresh Bing cherry supported by balanced acidity. Rich chocolate truffle and damp earth unfold into nutty carob and mocha. A hint of tobacco and green leafy herbs peek out from behind all the fruit. Medium-high, chalky tannins contribute to a long-ish finish of macerated raspberry and blueberry preserves. Somehow, this wine defies physics–it’s bigger on the inside than it is on the outside.
I take a few more sips. I puzzle over the label and a North Coast map that I’ve pulled up on my phone. “Is Pine Mountain in Sonoma or Mendocino County?” I call out to wine bar owner Tom across the counter. “Both!” comes the reply, suggesting that this Merlot has superpowers not only of spatial manipulation but also of bi-location.
Really good aging potential on this compressed and potent Merlot-based blend. It could probably use a few more years to integrate its quite high alcohol. But too bad about that–we’re enjoying it now. Aged 20 months in 40% new French oak.
Captûre Wines also makes a Cabernet Sauvignon from the same vineyards, which is described as the inverse of this wine (~93% Cabernet and 7% Merlot). Sounds like an interesting side-by-side–hopefully I get to try them together sometime.
Bottle: Captûre Pine Mountain-Cloverdale Peak Merlot (2021)
Variety: Merlot (93%), Cabernet Sauvignon (7%)
ABV: 14.2%
Suggested retail: $65
My rating: 9 (out of 10)
*Yeah, I’ve gone through all the trouble of opening my laptop’s special character map to find the little peak-shaped “u” letter for Captûre. Because if I had a mountain vineyard or maybe a heavy metal band, I’d want someone to do me the same typographical courtesy.
Doing it all for the love of Merlot! See past #MerlotThursday reviews here.
Review disclosure: I was not compensated or provided any free products for this review. Opinions expressed on The Wine Fairy blog are entirely my own.
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