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Forestville
Varietal: Merlot
With its dark blue colored fruits and high juice content, Merlot varietal grapes have long been a favorite of wine producers around the globe, with it being found in vineyards across Europe, the Americas and elsewhere in the New World. One of the distinguishing features of Merlot grapes is the fact that they have a relatively low tannin content and an exceptionally soft and fleshy character, meaning they are capable of producing incredibly rounded and mellow wines. This mellowness is balanced with plenty of flavor, however, and has made Merlot grapes the varietal of choice for softening other, more astringent and tannin-heavy wines, often resulting in truly exceptional produce. Merlot is regarded as one of the key 'Bordeaux' varietals for precisely this reason; when combined with the drier Cabernet Sauvignon, it is capable of blending beautifully to produce some of the finest wines available in the world.
Region: California
California has long been the New World's most important and prodigious wine producing regions, with a history which stretches back to the 18th century and the Spanish pioneers who settled here. Today, California produces vast quantities of wine, and if it were a country, it would be the fourth largest producer of wine on earth. Despite experiencing many problems in the mid 20th century, including a very serious blight which almost crippled the state's wine industry, the ideal terroir and excellent climate ensured that Californian wines soon became the envy of the New World once again. California produces a vast range of wines, and utilizes a long list of fine grape varietals, with many wineries and their produce more closely resembling those of France and other Old World countries in regards to character, practices and flavors
Country: United States
The first European settlers to consider growing grapevines in the United States must have been delighted when they discovered the now famous wine regions within California, Oregon and elsewhere. Not even in the Old World are there such fertile valleys, made ideal for vine cultivation by the blazing sunshine, long, hot summers and oceanic breezes. As such, it comes as little surprise that today more than eighty-nine percent of United States wines are grown in the valleys and on the mountainsides of California, where arguably some of the finest produce in the world is found. However, American wine does not begin and end with California, and due to the vast size of the country and the incredible range of terrains and climates found within the United States, there is probably no other country on earth which produces such a massive diversity of wines. From ice wines in the northern states, to sparkling wines, aromatized wines, fortified wines, reds, whites, rosés and more, the United States has endless surprises in store for lovers of New World wines.