Pride Mountain Vineyards Napa County Estate Merlot 2023 TBO Les Athletes du Vin

Les Athletes du Vin

Same mountain

supple center extends into a stellar

Aromatic and ringing

fermented with 20% oak aging to deepen its profile

Pride Mountain Vineyards Napa County Estate Merlot 2023 TBO Les Athletes du VinPride sits 2,100 feet up on Spring Mountain, where fog rarely reaches and the nights get properly cold mountain fruit, small berries, thick skins, real structure. That elevation is the whole story here: this is Merlot with backbone, not the soft and plush kind that gave the grape a bad name in the '90s. It's built on the same Mayacamas ridge that produces the estate's Cabernet, and it drinks like a serious mountain red that just happens to be Merlot.