Merry Edwards Wines

Everyone says Merry Edwards is a great winemaker. Everyone is right. Throughout her career, this consummate professional has not missed a thing, and that’s the kind of veteran wisdom you need to really let a vintage speak to you. When you have the whole vocabulary, you can discern nuances. When you don’t, you can’t – no matter how many times the 20-something winemakers tell you that “wine is made in the vineyard.” They’re just reciting something now that will have meaning later. With Edwards, she’s meaning it now and we should all pay attention.

The 2003 Pinot Noir vintage is a great case in point. The crop was small in Sonoma Coast (Edwards’ piece is near Sebastopol and Russian River) and the weather threw some superheated curveballs. Edwards didn’t go for the bomb, she went for the ripe cherries, captured the acids perfectly, and knitted them together with deft oak. The result is a wine that will wake up your mouth like few Pinots from the area and vintage. The entry is racy and packed with flavor, then the wine opens up the spice and minerals you expect from Sonoma Coast. I tasted this blind in a flight with some serious wines, including 2003 Chambertin. Out-balanced them all by a mile.

Reviewed September 20, 2006 by Thom Elkjer.