EMH Vineyards

This relatively new producer, with its fourth release, has been able to harvest enough fruit from its tiny – and we do mean eensy – vineyard to produce more than one barrel. In their eighth year of life, these maturing vines manifest in anything but small.

The wine has lots o’ black fruit aromas. It translates to the palate, manifesting in a full-bodied structure, great balance with cassis and blackberry flavors with fine-grained tannins for aging for up to 10 years. Winemaker Art Finkelstein (Judd’s Hill) has also folded in a hint of chocolate, some earth and tar notes and layers of complexity.

EMH, by the way, are the initials of owner Merrill (the “M”) Lindquist, her daughter Emily (”E”), and her ex, Hugh (“H”). The two-thirds of an acre vineyard is in a good neighborhood, close in proximity to Araujo’s famed Eisele Vineyard. The wine was fermented in French oak, half of which was new. The listed alcohol is 14.5 percent. Unfortunately, there were only 100 cases produced. But what can one expect from a vintner who relies solely on an itty-bitty vineyard?

Reviewed October 24, 2006 by Alan Goldfarb.