1996 Profile
Varietals
72% Cabernet Sauvignon
20% Merlot
8% Cabernet Franc
Appellation
Napa Valley
Alcohol
14.5% by volume
Flavor Profile
Elegance, balance and complexity are the dominant themes of this wine in its youth. Its subtle aroma has a complex mingling of berry, cherry, cedar and earth notes that will continue to expand with time in the bottle. Those same notes continue on the palate. The structure is round and balanced, with tannins that are supple and harmonious. Full maturity can be expected in ten years or so.
- Vineyard Notes
Beckstoffer, Campbell, Thorevilos, Slawson, Amizetta, Poe, Thompson, and Napanook Vineyards
- From Wine Spectator: "Round, smooth and spicy...
… with pretty, supple black cherry, plum, wild berry and mineral flavors. Turns mildly tannic, showing a nice cedary, toasty oak. Best from 2000 through 2009. 6.000 cases made.” —James Laube [91 POINTS]
- From The Wine Advocate: "The dense plum/purple-colored...
… 1996 Profile (a blend of Merryvale’s finest lots of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc) boasts a persistent sweet, ripe blackberry, prune and licorice-scented nose. With full body, an opulent texture, a chewy, fleshy personality, and adequate underlying acidity and tannin, it can be drunk now and over the next 12-15 years.” —Robert Parker, Jr. [90 POINTS]
- From Wine & Spirits: "A big Napa red, plush and showy as Puff Daddy’s fur coat,
… Merryvale’s Profile is made from hillside cab sauv, merlot and cab franc, the vineyards ranging from Spring Mountain to the hillsides east of St. Helena and Rutherford. The dark flavors center around dried currants, fleshy black plum, tobacco leaf and barrel smoke. A curtain of high acidity and high alcohol rises to reveal the fruit as oak smoke descends. Flashy stuff.” —Steve Pitcher [90 POINTS]