It’s not Thursday, but that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy some Merlot

To celebrate the end of another year and the approaching departure of a colleague for his yearly vacation for several months to a warmer part of the country than Michigan, we decided to open a bottle we’d been excited about since we first got it in. Keenan Winery makes some of my favorite (and personally, some of the most underrated) bottles of Cabernet and Merlot on Spring Mountain.

In 1974, Robert Keenan rescued the remains of the Peter Conradi winery that had been abandoned since prohibition, along with some of the surrounding acreage, and began planting grapes. Over time he created some long-lasting, lower alcohol wines that didn’t conform to the high-powered trends that came with Robert Parker’s love for Napa Cabernet, and focused on making enjoyable wine with the ability to withstand some age and serve as an welcomed accompaniment to a wide range of foods, making them a great place to source bottles to have in your wine fridge when you’re looking for something both versatile and pleasurable.

The “Mailbox Vineyard” is a plot in their lower bowl that, over the years, consistently produced really solid fruit with solid structure and purity that eventually merited its own bottling, with Merlot being the shining star in the vineyard section.

2014 Keenan Winery Merlot Reserve “Mailbox Vineyard”, Spring Mountain District, Napa Valley, California– A library release, this has been at my store for a couple years in our climate controlled area with some of the much more expensive and rare bottles, and it has always deserved its spot. Initially, upon opening, the wine was actually kind of muted, with an incredible nose but a palate that didn’t quite match. Assuming it just needed to sit in the glass for a little while, I came back to it and still found it to be a bit disconnected. That’s when we decided to throw it in a decanter and focus on another bottle we had opened. After about 1 ½ to 2 hours I revisited it and was so pleasantly surprised.

On the nose, the wine was showing beautiful notes of red and dark cherry, plum skins, red currant juice, sweet pipe tobacco, pomegranate juice and zest, and old leather like a vintage leather jacket, which seems so perfect for the history and attitude of Napa winemaking in general.

On the palate you are pleasantly hit with the same plum skins, red currant juice, dark cherries, pomegranate juice, with the delightful addition of blackberry and cranberry juice, a faint note of eucalyptus, as well as crushed basil and sage, hints of beef broth, and a really interesting note that reminded me of the scent of old furniture or the smell you get when you walk into an antique store. There were also subtle earthy notes that felt like dark soil with lots of gravel in it, certainly nothing like the dark potting soil notes found in other reds with heavy tertiary flavors.

The tannins were incredibly smooth but also quite light compared to other Napa cabs, similar to what you might find in an Etna Rosso or a ripe, juicy Cotes du Rhone; pleasant and quite enjoyable to have on its own, something that isn’t always possible with Napa reds, even at this age.

All in all, this Merlot was something I’d happily buy a case of. Was it the most incredible Merlot Napa has to offer? I wouldn’t necessarily say so, but is it a remarkably enjoyable bottle that I’d feel confident in serving to guests or friends? Absolutely.

This is the kind of Merlot that would be perfect for a Thursday, but it certainly still shines on a Saturday as well.