2012 Melka Mekerra Metisse La Mekerra Vineyard

The 2012 La Mekerra, again a 50-50 blend of Cabernet Franc and Merlot, comes across as Knights Valley-s answer to the famed St.-Emilion Cheval Blanc. A fabulous wine, it offers up notes of mulberries, blueberries, incense, spring flowers, mint and coffee beans. Deep, rich, full-bodied and opulent, it possesses extensive texture as well as wonderfully rich, heady fruit. Enjoy it over the next 15-20 years. Philippe Melka is one of the most respected and successful of the French-born, Bordeaux-educated oenologists working in California. He and his wife Cherie have been doing terrific consulting work for many years, and while he no doubt has to face the same absurd criticisms that some of his colleagues like Michel Rolland confront (all the wines taste the same as all of their clients- wines), nothing could be further from the truth. Melka also has the grit to put his own name on a couple of interesting wines, especially his project in the Knights Valley as well as his Jumping Goat Vineyard wine from St. Helena. Melka always jokes with me that I-m not allowed to score his wines higher than his clients-. However, they are what they are, and these are extremely impressive wines that demand to be taken seriously. Melka-s red wine comes from a site not far from where Peter Michael makes their famed Bordeaux blend, Les Pavots. La Mekerra is usually a blend of nearly equal parts Cabernet Franc and Merlot aged 24-26 months in French oak, of which about half is new. Tel. (707) 963-6008