Get your taste buds ready for one tasty Merlot! Today’s Ty Caton Vineyards 2015 Moon Mountain District Sonoma County Upper Bench Merlot delivers great aromatics and a mouthful of goodness. Ty’s wines are always hot sellers and because this wine is an Ultra QPR steal, we expect it to go very quickly.

Dark and lush on the nose, with aromas of fresh violet, canned cherry, plum, wild strawberry, blackberry preserve, and chalky earth, with licorice root at the very end. Rich and concentrated, with flavors of blackberry preserve, dried fig, cassis, dulce de leche, softly toasted pecan, baker’s chocolate, dark spice, and a hint of carob.

Officially recognized in 1981, the Moon Mountain AVA (American Viticultural Area) is a sub-appellation of the broader Sonoma Valley AVA in Sonoma County California. With 1500 acres under vine, the area ranges from 400 feet in elevation to over 200 feet. Thin, volcanic soils, which impart a certain terroir rest on ancient lava flows. Winds from both the San Pablo Bay to the south and the Pacific Ocean to the west provide the grapes with evening cooling. These all add up to wines of rich, distinctive character. Moon Mountain has been a source of cherished wine grapes since the 1860s. Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel reign supreme in this area, which is crowned by Louis M. Martini’s famed Monte Rosso vineyard.

This wine is a marvel. We love it. We recommend it. We can’t get enough of it.

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Here’s what the wine press has to say:

90 Points - Joshua Greene, Wine & Spirits Magazine - ”2015 Moon Mountain District Upper Bench Caton Vineyard Merlot (Best Buy) This grows at the highest point in the Caton Vineyard, where a three-acre block of merlot is planted in deep, volcanic soils. The wine’s tannins start o with a hard edge of cumin-like spice and bitter chocolate, but the flavor of red berries gains prominence with air, building a chewy merlot with rm, mountain-grown structure.”