#1 Wine - James Suckling's Top 100 USA List 2024

98pts James Suckling

Delicious, velvety and mouth-filling, this wine could convert any merlot skeptic to being a fan. Mountain grown in the Stagecoach Vineyard and Waters Vineyard, it is intense and saturated with flavor, but wrapped in luscious tannins that tempt you to drink it now. Blueberries, creme de cassis, cherries, cream and mint. 100% merlot. Drinkable now, but best from 2028.

95pts Lisa Perrotti-Brown The Wine Independent

The single-varietal 2021 Merlot comes 62% from Waters Ranch and 38% from Stagecoach Vineyard and is due to be bottled very soon. Deep garnet-purple in color, it comes barreling out of the glass with bold expressions of juicy blueberries, Morello cherries, and wild blueberries, leading to wafts of rose oil, cardamom, and cumin seed with a waft of fragrant soil. The full-bodied palate delivers a very fine-grained yet firm backbone of ripe, rounded tannins and beautiful tension to support the black fruit and floral layers, finishing long with a spicy lift.

95pts Decanter

Winemaker Katie Vogt says the 2021 vintage proved to be an excellent year, with even ripening, no major heat waves, low yields, tons of intensity, and perfect fruit quality. A harmonious 100% Merlot with serious intensity but balanced with acid freshness and mineral richness. Pretty lovely black cherry, plum, and blueberry fruit aromatics with sagebrush layered in. A soft and plush mouthfeel envelops the palate with a core of dense fruit flavours redolent of mountain-grown blackberries and spiced plums. The tannins are fine and powdery and build on the finish, gaining volume and intensity. A lovely, balanced, and delicious red. Aged 18 months in 90% new French Oak. (JC)

94pts Wine Advocate

Pahlmeyer's 2021 Merlot is 100% Merlot matured 18 months in 89% new French oak and bottled unfined and unfiltered. A blend of fruit from the Pahlmeyer Estate Vineyard (68%) and Stagecoach (32%), it's ripe and plummy, with further notes of black cherries and mocha. It's full-bodied and structured, nicely firm without being tough or hard, with a long, cool, savory finish.

Winemaker's Notes

Our debut Pahlmeyer red from the stellar 2021 vintage is a thrill to experience, a wine that matches intensity with elegance, beautifully articulated and built to age. Aromas of blackberry and cassis leap from the glass with an underscore of black olive and dark earth. The palate is muscular yet refined, a lithe dance of richness and nuance. A focused core of fresh dark fruit—blackberry, boysenberry, and black plum—is enveloped in polished tannins that lend a weighty grip without overpowering. A lifting note of lingonberry jam runs long through the finish, interplaying with hints of cedar, fresh leather, and sage that echo long on the finish.