About The Wine
Our Tower 15, 2020 Merlot features a deep garnet color with classic soft tannins and rich, dark fruit flavors. The grapes for this vintage are sourced from Giffs Vineyard in Santa Ynez Valley, where beautiful Merlot vines were planted in 1978 and have been organically farmed ever since. All grapes were hand sorted and destemmed before they were cold soaked for five days with intermittent punchdowns and pumpovers. During fermentation this wine was punched down up to three times each day until complete. The wine was drained and pressed into a combination of 30% new French oak barrels and 70% neutral French oak barrels. We normally reserve a majority of Merlot for our ‘Swell’ blend each year, which only leaves a small amount for this single varietal bottling, but this vintage proved to make a beautiful stand alone wine.
The AVA
The sub-AVA of the Santa Ynez Valley, the Los Olivos District AVA is a broad alluvial terrace between the Purisima Hills above Solvang and the western flank of Happy Canyon. The terrain slopes gently, with a moderate climate marked by warm days with occasional morning fog and cool nights.
Winemaker Notes
Dark fruits like plums, black cherries, and raspberries combined with dried herbs, vanilla, mocha. Soft and pleasing on the palate, figs, plums and cherry cola are supported by soft tannins and notes of chocolate and cedar.
