2004 Alhona Vineyards Carmel Valley Merlot
August, 2008
SILVER MEDAL - BEST OF APPELLATION AWARD from Appellation America
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June, 2008
89 Point Silver
Medal - 2008 California State Fair Wine
Competition
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November, 2007
By Edward Deitch
Wine columnist
TODAY - As seen on...MSNBC.com
Wed., November 14, 2007
TODAY MSNBC WINE CRITIC EDWARD DEITCH SELECTS ALHONA VINEYARDS 2004 MERLOT FOR THANKSGIVING CORNUCOPIA.
We turned our house into a Thanksgiving test kitchen this past weekend with the aim of finding red wines that might make good matches for the holiday feast. We found many possibilities, and the need to be a little cautious about some of our favorites.
To approximate our Thanksgiving meal, we went out and bought a couple of chickens, filled them with stuffing and cooked up a bunch of side dishes, including roasted sliced sweet potatoes and carrots and steamed brussels sprouts with maple syrup.
One of our friends, summing up the confusion, year after year, on what to drink, asked in frustration,
“Every Thanksgiving comes around and what do you have for the wine?” We focused on American reds....
For Thanksgiving, a cornucopia of red wines
From delicate to bold, Edward Deitch rounds up reds to please any palate
Bigger, more aggressive reds
...if you prefer bigger, more aggressive reds, here are a few possibilities:
from California, the 2004 Merlot from Alhona Vineyards in the Carmel Valley of
Mendocino County is a superb example of this sometimes maligned variety —bright, well-structured and balanced with plum, blackberry and earth notes.
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April, 2007
Silver Medal - 2007 West Coast Wine Competition
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- September, 2007
- The 2004 Merlot, Carmel Valley, $25, 251 cases, spent 12 months in American oak and has attractive aromas of chocolate, vanilla, coffee, sweet plum, currant, and lilac before medium bodied flavors of the same plus lots of tannin. Everything carries through the long, medium-broad finish. Well integrated, structured, and balanced.
- Colorado Wine News
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2002 Alhona Vineyards Carmel Valley Merlot
- March, 2007
87 POINTS
- The grapes come from a warmer portion of Monterey County noted for Bordeaux varieties. This is a sophisticated, softly dry red wine, brimming with cherry, cassis and oaky-spice flavors, and is notable for its finely ground, ripe tannins. Enjoyable now, it should hold for a few years.
- Wine Enthusiast
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- March, 2007
- The 2002
Merlot, Carmel Valley, $32,
265 cases, spent 18 months in American oak
and a minimum of 12 months in the bottle
before release. It has an inviting bouquet
of dry black tea, cedar and smoke which
introduces flavors of weak brewed black
tea, red currant, almost ripe raspberry,
and smoke plus light tannin. It finishes
long and medium-broad. The 2002
Merlot is
Alhona's first release and it bodes well
for the future.
- Colorado Wine News
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- January, 2007
- Excellent
Whoa, Alhona takes merlot for a walk on the wild side in this super-ripe, exotic and luscious wine, the first release for this property. The whole
package is drenched in sandalwood, lavender, cassis, blueberry and black cherry, cedar and dried Provençal herbs, providing a field-day for sensualists. On the other hand, 18 months in American – not French – oak barrels bestow solid firmness and structure below the plush texture and even a touch of underbrush-like austerity on the finish. 265 cases and Worth a Search.
Now through 2009 to 2012.
- A Case of New Releases
Koeppel On Wine
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