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750ml
Bottle:
$19.38
$20.40
12 bottles:
$16.63
Plummy, generous but with backbone, featuring rich flavors of fruit and herbs. From the famous North Fork of Long...
750ml
Bottle:
$23.60
12 bottles:
$23.13
Deep, violet-ruby red in color, New York ICON Merlot is a fruity wine with notes of plums and blackberries. Intense,...
750ml
Bottle:
$33.60
$38.40
Eye: Garnet core, pink rose rim.
Nose: Kumquat, exotic spice, wild strawberries, raspberries, Rainier cherry. Time...
750ml
Bottle:
$28.57
12 bottles:
$28.00
Planting a forest one bottle at a time.
Browne Family Vineyards is honored to partner with One Tree Planted....
750ml
Bottle:
$23.94
$25.20
12 bottles:
$22.80
A wine that is full expression of the potential of Apulian nature, the Rosso dei Vespa combines the traditional...
750ml
Bottle:
$44.90
12 bottles:
$44.00
60% Zinfandel,15% Grenache, 10% Alicante Bouschet, 5% Petite Sirah and 10% "other" (20+ other varieties, in fact)...
750ml
Bottle:
$26.93
$28.80
"Bambino" comes from a ten-acre block planted on Old Hill in 1998. This young-vine field blend is patterned after the...
750ml
Bottle:
$29.94
$31.60
12 bottles:
$26.60
Our Zinfandel was aged for 12 months in a combination of French and American oak barrels, 20% of which were new. At...
750ml - Case of 12
Bottle:
$8.55
The color is deep ruby red, almost garnet. Berry-like aroma, intense, with typical Merlot character. Dry, soft,...
750ml
Bottle:
$11.87
$12.50
12 bottles:
$7.60
Our Merlot displays rich notes of smoky oak and mesquite, which are perfectly balanced with soft, ripe tannins and...
750ml
Bottle:
$11.99
Wonderfully aromatic and fruity, blending silky flavors of blackberry, cherry, and blackcurrant.
750ml
Bottle:
$14.94
$16.25
This is a balanced, drink-me-now Merlot ideal for casual consumption. Find notes of fresh cedar, black cherry, plum...
750ml
Bottle:
$17.86
$18.80
12 bottles:
$15.05
Intense aromatics of fresh, ripe raspberry and blueberry. On the palate, crushed ripe berries, vanilla and leather...
750ml
Bottle:
$13.93
$15.34
Color : Ruby red with delicate garnet undertones.
Nose : The minerality of the nose creates a delicate combination...
750ml
Bottle:
$12.57
12 bottles:
$12.32
This Merlot has a deep ruby red color. It is a full-bodied wine with fine smooth tannin and strong cherry aroma with...
750ml - Case of 12
Bottle:
$18.80
Color: Ruby red very intense with purple reflexes.
Bouquet: Strong and distinctive with sensations of sour cherry...
Merlot Other Italian Reds Primitivo Zinfandel
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.
As with many European grape varietals, there is some debate regarding the precise origins of the Primitivo grape. Most people now agree that it probably came from Croatia, where it is still used widely in the production of red wine, and it known as Tribidrag. However, today it is a grape most commonly associated with the powerful red wines of Puglia, the heel of Italy’s boot, where the intense sunshine and brisk Mediterranean breezes produce grapes of remarkable character and balance. Primitivo is a dark grape, known for producing intense, inky, highly tannic wines, most notably the naturally sweet Dolce Naturale and the heavy and complex Primitivo di Manduria wines. Primitivo tends to be naturally very high in both tannin and alcohol, making it ideal for both barrel and cellar ageing, which brings out its more rounded and interesting features.
Primitivo is not the easiest grape to grow or manage, and it has had something of a difficult century. Indeed, by the 1990s, there was little interest in Puglian wines in general, and winemakers were neglecting their Primitivo vineyards and looking to other, more commercially viable varietals. However, the last decade has seen this grape come well and truly back into fashion, with new techniques and a heightened interest in native Italian grape varietals bringing Primitivo back into the spotlight. It is now widely loved for its intensity and ability to be paired with strongly flavored foods.
The precise origins of what became known as the Zinfandel grape variety are uncertain, although it has clear genetic equivalents in both Puglia and Croatia. However, when it was brought to the New World in the mid 19th century, it became known as the Zinfandel, and has been consistently popular and widely grown ever since. These very dark and very round grapes have a remarkably high sugar content, resulting in relatively high levels of alcohol in the wines they are made into, with bottles often displaying as much as fifteen percent. What makes the Zinfandel such an interesting grape, though, is the fact that the flavors produced by this varietal vary considerably depending on the climate they are grown in. In cooler valley regions, the Zinfandel grapes result in wines which hold strong flavors of tart and sweet fruits; raspberry, redcurrant and sweet cherry, held in a very smooth and silky liquid. Conversely, warmer regions result in more complex and spicy notes, including anise, pepper and hedgerow berries.