If you are visiting us for the first time, Welcome! The Wine Spies feature one exceptional wine each day – and we only bring you wines that we ourselves seek out and love. Always, the wines are great. Sometimes greater than great, as is the case with today’s wine from Kelley Creek Winery.

Mission Codename: Do You Know? Merlot!

Operative: Agent Red

Objective: Explore Kelley Creeks’ New Wines

Mission Status: Accomplished!

Current Winery: Kelley Creek Winery

Wine Subject: 2005 Merlot

Winemaker: Scott Lindstrom-Dake

Backgrounder:
Winemaker, Scott Lindstrom-Dake, has been making great wine since 1995. His Thumbprint Cellars wines are among our very favorites and now he brings you Kelly Creek wines, grown on his family’s estate in Dry Creek Valley.

Of winemaking, Scott says, “I developed a palate for fine wine, but as a college student I couldn’t afford to buy it. My mom and step-dad have been growing premium wine grapes for years and the light bulb just kind of went on- I can make my own wine.”

So it began with Thumbprint. A few years later, Scott’s Kelly Creek wines exhibit all of the qualities we have come to expect from this masterful winemaker. If you love Thumbprint wines, you’ll love Kelly Creek. Just don’t expect them to be a carbon copy of Tumbprint, because, these new wines seem to have a unique character of their own.

Wine Spies Tasting Profile:

Look – Dark purple in color with good clarity with lots of long slender legs when swirled vigorously.

Smell – This wine exhibits very balanced aromas of fruit, including ripe raspberries, oak and cocoa. As it opens up it presents a distinct butterscotch aroma reminiscent of a ’Werther’s Original’ hard candy.

Feel – Smooth and juicy as you would expect from a Merlot, but also slightly dry and a bit chewy in character. Softens nicely as it opens up.

Taste – Ripe fruit balanced with a hint of black pepper spiciness and a slight earthy quality. As this wine opens up, additional layered flavors of blackberries, plums and cocoa emerge.

Finish – This wine finishes smooth, clean and medium long, fading nicely.

Conclusion – As with all the wines from Kelley Creek and Thumbprint Cellars, this Merlot is exceptionally easy to drink, is true to its varietal character, and demonstrates the quality you would expect from a handcrafted wine. Merlot often gets a bad rap, but this wine clearly shows why Merlot continues to be among the most popular wines among our operatives.

Mission Report:

As a deep cover agent, I’m not often going public with my mission briefings. Usually, I do the more Top Secret work while Agents Red and White are off gallivanting around the globe. Today is going to be different because I am thrilled to report that I have uncovered an incredible new wine – and scooped my fellow agents by bringing it to you before the rest of the wine buying public finds out!

The Wine Spies have been big fans of winemaker Scott Lindstrom-Dake. His Thumbprint Cellars wines are world class, elegant, and downright tasty. Because I work hard to keep my network of assets working for me, I was able to learn of Scott’s new Kelly Creek wines long before they appeared on everyone else’s radar. Keeping my ear to the vineyard floor allows me to maintain close connections with winemakers around the region. This attention pays off for the Wine Spies and for you, our loyal operatives.

The reward, in this case, is a wine that is available exclusively for you. Since we have successfully completed missions with Scott in the past, he was thrilled to make available to our operatives a small quantity of his new Merlot. After you, our operatives, grab it all up, it may be some time before it is available again.

Wine Spies Vineyard Check:

The location of the Schneider Vineyards in the Dry Creek region of Sonoma can be seen in this satellite photo.