1994 Merlot Journey Sonoma County

Matanzas Creek Winery, just southeast of Santa Rosa, was one of the first California wineries to make a major commitment to a varietal merlot bottling. Its first commercial release of merlot was the '78, from estate vines planted in 1973 and 1974 on rocky loam soil with a high clay content. Since 1988 the winery merlot has been made from a combination of Sangiacomo and estate merlot, plus some of the winery's own Sonoma Valley cabernet sauvignon and occasional bits of cabernet franc from elsewhere. In 1992, Matanzas introduced a high-end bottling called Journey, which is 100% merlot, all from estate grapes in a low-yielding section of the original estate that produces consistently intense wine.Since 1978, there have been three separate winemaking regimes. Merrie Edwards made the 1978 through 1984 vintages, David Ramey vinified from '85 through '88 (he left in the spring of '89), and the current team of Bill Parker and Susan Reed has been responsible for winemaking since the '89 vintage.According to Bill Parker, the estate merlot tends to be fat, fleshy and plummy, while the Carneros fruit is more refined, with complex herbal tones. My tasting of most of the merlots made here back to 1984 made it clear that the wines of the '90s are denser and riper than ever before, with extraordinarily expressive aromas of black raspberry, cocoa powder, meat and herbs. Although these wines are generally accessible early due to their compelling aromatics and lush textures, they appear to have the stuffing and structure to age for at least 12 to 15 years. During the decade of the '80s, the Matanzas Creek merlots were routinely fined with egg whites, but of recent vintages only the '93 was fined. Filtration is a last-minute decision, but due to the dangers posed by brettanomyces most of the wines since the '91 vintage have been given a coarse membrane filtration.

As at so many California wineries, Matanzas Creek crushed more fruit in '97 than ever before-in fact, a good 25% more than their previous high. But then production in the previous two years was reduced by nature: in '96 sauvignon blanc yields in particular were affected by a difficult flowering, while in '95 a June hailstorm cut the estate merlot crop in half. I will publish the results of a vertical tasting of the superb Matanzas Creek merlot in the next issue.