Geyser Peak Winery
2006 Reserve Alexandre Meritage
Meritage
California: Alexander Valley
Mission Briefing
Bordeaux Faithful
SELL OUT ALERT: We purchased every last bottle of today’s wine, but it will go very quickly. Please be sure to place your order soon.
It has been more than a year since Geyser Peak graced our pages, so we thought that we’d bring them back with a bang. Their 2006 Reserve Alexandre Meritage is their highly-prized flagship wine and we are very proud to bring it to you, today.
A very elegant wine, today’s Geyser Peak Meritage shows wonderful balance and a real potential for fine-food pairings. This is a very flexible wine, to be sure, but we recommend serving it with your finer and more elegant meals. Bright fruit and a soft mouthfeel make for a great between-bites palate cleanser.
If you are a fan of Bordeaux-style blends, you won’t be disappointed by today’s wonderful selection. Unless, that is, we run out before you can make your purchase!
Tasting Profile
| Look: | Deep garnet with a slightly opaque heart. At the edges, the wine shows off clear ruby hues. |
|---|---|
| Smell: | Lush and balanced with dark fruit of plum, cassis, dried black cherry and wild strawberry that melds with dark tobacco leaf, dusty bramble, leather, sweet spice and a hint braised fig. |
| Taste: | Bright and sweet in even proportion, with fruits from the nose echoed on the palate. Earth, spice, bramble, leather and cherry cordial follow on. |
| Finish: | Elegant and softly drying, with fruit and soft spice lingering at the mid-palate the longest. |
| Pairing: | Enjoy this elegant wine with a delicate cut of meat, like a lovely filet mignon, cooked to (rare) perfection. |
What the Winery Says
2006 Reserve Alexandre Meritage, Alexander Valley
- Vintage
- 2006
- Wine Type
- Red Wine
- Varietal
- Cabernet Sauvignon
- Appellation
- Alexander Valley
- Harvest Date
- 2006
- Aging
- 20 months
- Alcohol %
- 14.5
- Tasting Notes
- A multifaceted, noteworthy wine Reserve Alexandre strikes a balance between intensity and refinement. The core of the palate is reminiscent of black currant and pomegranate fruit complimented by floral aromas of rose petal and petunia. These fruit and floral notes are interwoven with lovely fresh earth aromas of warm stone and bittersweet chocolate. The graceful structure of this wine yields supple tannins with a silky mouth feel and the interplay of the five varietals results in a noble and luxurious wine.
- Production Notes
- In crafting Reserve Alexandre we look to our vineyard sources that consistently produce grapes with abundant fruit and rich structure. Low-yielding vines from high-elevations, hillsides, and bench land sites produce grape berries with excellent concentration, unparalleled finesse and subtlety. Each of the five varietals brings a unique character to the blend. Cabernet Sauvignon is the backbone and framework of the wine, Merlot fleshes out the body and adds to the juicy palate, Malbec brings the floral component and sumptuous spice, Petit Verdot adds a measure of tannin and lovely color, and an aliquot of Cabernet Franc adds brown spice and a sophisticated dried herb note to the final blend. Each component is vinted individually and the varied lots are blended in stages and then matured as a single wine for fourteen months.
- Varietal composition
- 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 13% Merlot, 9% Malbec 7% Petit Verdot and 1% Cabernet Franc
About the Winery
One of California’s oldest and most renowned wineries, Geyser Peak Winery was founded in 1880 by Augustus Quitzow, a pioneer in Alexander Valley winemaking, Geyser Peak has flourished as an award-winning winery for more than 130 years. Quitzow chose the original winery site in Geyserville for its vantage point of the famed Geysers Geothermal area. The white steam that billowed from the geysers along the mountain slopes provided the winery with a spectacular ‘view of the clouds’.
Today, Geyser Peak pays fond tribute to its past roots in Alexander Valley as it sets forth on a new path into the Dry Creek Valley Appellation where the winery has recently relocated. Although the address is new, the commitment to the highest quality artisan winemaking is not. Geyser Peak will continue to “Reach For Peak” for many years to come.
Winemaker Ondine Chattan
Ondine Chattan has completed more than 15 harvests with Geyser Peak Winery. Under her leadership, the winemaking team has honed and refined the now distinctive style of our wines, introducing innovative production techniques, and enthusiastically promoting the Alexander Valley and our broad portfolio of award-winning wines.
A native of Marin County, Ondine spent a great deal of time in Sonoma Wine Country during her childhood, where she fell in love with the wine industry. This passion in her soul has never wavered and grew even stronger while obtaining an undergraduate degree in Viticulture from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and a Master’s Degree in Enology from Fresno State University.
After college, her love of Zinfandel and Rhone varietals led her to positions at Cline Cellars in the Sonoma Valley and Ridge Vineyards in Cupertino before settling down to her ‘winemaking home’ in the Alexander Valley. Joining Geyser Peak was a dream come true for Ondine, with its diversity of varietals, vineyards and wine styles inspiring her creativity and fueling her passion for producing exciting, accessible, unique wines.