Ravenswood Merlot Vintners 18 750ML

As everyone with taste buds knows, robust and red are two qualities that define thewines of Ravenswood. The wines we like best come from old, pre-Prohibition vines dry-farmed and low-production.Ravenswood strives to honor these venerable vineyards with soulful wines that arerepresentative of place, person and period in time. Our goal is to exalt the grape, notoverwhelm it.

You cant talk about the Zin category without mentioning Ravenswood. Established in1976, Ravenswood was one of the first on the scene to focus their winemaking efforts tothe production of classically big and bold Zinfandel from Sonoma County and bring it tothe world stage.Ravenswood was founded by Joel Peterson, who is dubbed the Godfather of Zin. Joeldedicated his winemaking career to crafting delicious Zinfandels that express the placethey are from, which in the case of Ravenswood, was typically around Sonoma County. During his first vintage, two ravens taunted Joel from above as he loaded Zinfandel intohis truck during a thunderstorm. Soon thereafter, Joel saw a performance of the tragicopera of Lucia de Lammermoor, in which Lord Ravenswood loses everything and sinksinto madness. With his debut wines still in-barrel, Joel was struggling, nearly broke, andsleep-deprived. At the time, he related and named the winery as a tribute. Following thesuccess of his wines, he believed the ravens were actually cheering him on and adoptedthe ravens as his official totem.

Proof/ABV: 13.5