Merlot

100% Merlot aged one year in a combination of neutral oak and steel tank. Medium-bodied, easy drinking Bordeaux with mild tannins. The brambly fruit has a radiance that makes it a pleasure to drink. Truly amazing value and a pleasure to drink, with lovely supple fruit and fine gravelly notes to complete the profile. A baby Graves to drink every night!

Château Cantelaudette is part of the Bordeaux holdings of the Chatelier family, which also owns Château Chatelier (formerly known as Château Fantin). The estate, located in the appellation of Graves de Vayres, was established by the family in 1870. At the time, as was the custom, they planted a variety of crops including grapes.

Château Cantelaudette is set between the cities of Bordeaux and Libourne in the northern part of the Entre-Deux-Mers region on a plateau overlooking the Dordogne River. The proximity to both the river and the ocean brings a warming influence that helps to fully ripen the grapes.

Jean-Michel is committed to improving the impact of farming on the environment and has obtained the demanding Haute Valeur Environnementale certification, which reflects excellence in the areas of biodiversity, plant protection, management of fertilizer use and management of water.

Winemaker Notes:
Gorgeous in the glass, this Merlot is a perfect, everyday wine. Aged for 12 months in American oak barrels, this wine is delicious for just about any occasion and food pairing.
Pairs well with a margherita pizza, aged white cheddar cheese, and a cheeseburger.

Winery Notes:
"Do you like to do it in the dark? You will, after Menage a Trois captivates you with their gorgeous garnet color, and seduce your palate with our bold blackberry and plush spiced plum flavors. But it doesn?????t stop there. They also bring you joy with hints of mocha, and exotic spiced kisses, which will linger on your lips. The supple, expressive taste with its long, flavorful finish intermingles with blackberry pastilles and hints of violet. Once you embrace the velvety Midnight Red Blend, you?????ll reveal your deepest, darkest desires."

Winemaker Notes:
A rich, dark garnet color in the glass with vibrant purple shimmer, this Merlot displays aromas of ripe plum, rich cocoa, blueberry, and violet with hints of juicy black cherry. A luscious mouthfeel full of dark fruit, hints of sweet spice, and restrained astringency lead into a delicious, lingering finish filled with toasty oak undertones.

Pair with Italian style sausages, jambalaya, seared blackened salmon.

Winery Notes:
"This Merlot blends the craftsmanship of California winemaking with the exotic tradition of dark rum barrel aging, resulting in an incredibly bold sensory expression. Ruby red in color, it opens with rich, sweet aromas of molasses, cocoa powder, maple, and black plum. Flavors of jammy plum and blackberries with complex nuances of toasted coconut, baking spices, and rich vanilla follow. Ripe tannins and concentrated flavors carry through to a long, and lush finish. A superb accompaniment to rum cake, pasta Bolognese, Korean short ribs, Jamaican jerk chicken, spicy coconut curry, dark chocolate, brie with fig jam, and a white, sandy beach at sunset."

Intricate layers of black cherry, plum, currant, and wild berry mingle with a hint of spice. The soft, delicate, elegant tannins of this Bordeaux varietal carry these aromas and flavors to a long, silky and lingering finish.~Winery Notes
Blend: 89% Merlot, 8% Malbec, 2% Cabernet Sauvignon, 1% Petit Verdot

A classic expression of California Merlot.

In 2015, chateau owner Bertrand Gourdou was searching through an old desk when he came across a label that his grandfather had made in the early 1970s; that wine was called Le pot-de-vin, which, in French, translates to {the bribe}, which for that era was an audacious play on words for a wine label! This label inspired Bertrand to make a simple, natural wine: biodynamically grown fruit, fermented with native yeast and with a negligible dose of SO2, made in concrete tanks built by his grandfather. The word "pot" also references the old-style bottle shape.

The rouge is 100% Merlot from the IGP Pays d"Oc, made with no oak in a light-to-medium-bodied style with gloriously fruit, freshness and length. It is, simply put, the quintessential French bistro red.

Bursting with blueberry and currant fruit, this zips across the palate with a racy texture and refined tannins. Lingers enticingly with a hint of mocha on the finish.

La Storia Merlot is and has been consistently fine example of the ability of this classic Bordeaux variety to make solid, tasty and age worthy wines. The main aromas and flavors are of dark cherry, plums, a bit of black licorice and herbs. The new oak barrels contribute a touch of vanilla, brown sugar, cocoa dust and toast. On the mouth the wine is soft and viscous, balancing the acidity and the tannins well for such a young wine. The finish is long and soft with suggestion of sweetness backed by ripe tannins. This wine will age well and will reward your patience if stored well in the next 3-6 years.

Organic / Biodynamic

In 2022, Le Puy’s Amoreau family acquired the vineyards and cellar of their friend and neighbor Regis Moro, a fellow low-tech low-interventionist whose vibrant, rugged, makeup-less wines never fully connected with the Parker-influenced times during which he operated, but which have stood the test of time with aplomb. Vieux Chateau Champs de Mars “Johanna”--Regis' top wine, from Merlot between 70 and 120 years of age planted in the sandy clay-limestone of the Castillon-Cotes de Bordeaux appellation.

Sometimes a winegrower is too far ahead of their time to be properly appreciated during their career. Regis Moro, along with his wife Therese and son Sebastien, founded Vieux Chateau Champs de Mars in the early 1980s, in the rolling hills of the Castillon-Cotes de Bordeaux appellation, mere kilometers from the Amoreau family’s legendary Chateau Le Puy.

Locale is not all Moro shared with Le Puy, however: Regis took a similarly rigorous approach in his vineyards, working organically from the outset and gradually incorporating biodynamic treatments; he also adopted low-intervention cellar work, favoring spontaneous fermentations, eschewing temperature control and new oak, and bottling very gently and naturally.

Moro’s focus on farming and fermentation over flashiness, however, put him out of step with his era, a time during which the rise of powerful critics steered Bordeaux well off-course from traditional practices and into the realm of big extraction, big oak, and big impact. While gaining recognition in certain circles?even garnering “Winemaker of the Year” in the influential French publication Le Point in the early 2000s?Regis’ project never quite took off in the way he hoped (or, we think, deserved), and in 2022 he sold his vineyards and winery to the Amoreau family, longtime friends and supporters.

Along with the acreage and the cellar, the Amoreaus were thrilled to obtain a treasure trove of older vintages which had lain undisturbed since they were bottled. The sandy clay-limestone terroir of Champs de Mars is beautifully suited to Merlot, which comprises 80% of the wine’s blend, complemented by 20% Cabernet Franc. Named after his granddaughter, “Johanna” was Regis Moro’s top wine, containing his oldest vines (70 years on average, with a parcel planted in 1904) and employing a more serious elevage than the basic cement-aged Champs de Mars bottling. The 2000 Johanna was hand-harvested, destemmed completely, given a 48-hour pre-fermentation maceration, and vinified in 50-hectoliter tronconic oak casks for 60 days with manual punch-downs; it then spent 18 months in well-used 225-liter barrels clarifying naturally, and was bottled without fining or filtration.