The Meeker Vineyard
Our Wines
2006 Gold Leaf Cuvee Merlot, $16
While we're known worldwide for our famous "big reds", even we don't like to drink Barberian every night. Sometimes a medium-bodied, easy-drinking red wine is the perfect thing. Our Gold Leaf Cuvee Merlot is a great every night drinking wine. Rich, fruity, delicious - and perfect with everything from pizza to pasta.
2009 Dry Creek Valley Petite Sirah, $34
It wouldn't be Petite Sirah if it didn't feature that characteristic black and white pepper - and boy does this '09 show off a big pepper nose. But that's not all - the nose has hints of blackberries and molasses, and on the palate the wine is rich with bittersweet cocoa and dark roast coffee layered with berry cobbler. We call some of our big wines the "creature from the black lagoon" - but we think this might even be the black lagoon that the creature came from. This is a perfect wine for pairing with cowboy/cowgirl style cuts of red meat or a rich lasagna. Drink now or save for 3-5 years.
2009 Fossil, $34
Have you met Fossil? This wine is an antique blend for a modern palate. The French used to blend Syrah into their Bordeaux blends in the early 1800s, until the French government outlawed it - leaving the creative Syrah-Cabernet Sauvignon-Merlot blend to fade away in Europe and most of the rest of the world, Australia excepted. But we’ve revived it with style. This Alexander Valley “CSM” blend has the attitude and mouthfeel of a T. Rex caged one day too long in a barrel in our cellar. The wine pops out of the glass with a big, blackberry-huckleberry nose and tannins cultivated in Alexander Valley’s red dirt. This wine stands up to even the most sassy Brontosaurus steak on your table today or will age another 5 years in your cellar.
2006 Dry Creek Valley Winemaker’s Reserve Zinfandel, $34
You should all know the drill by now. Zinfandel from Dry Creek Valley is our heritage. Our first love. No matter how much Merlot or Cab we might make, we never forget our first grape. The nose is a flood of big, brambly blackberry, a hallmark of classic Dry Creek Zins. With a few years in the bottle, this wine has really pushed into some serious complexity. The fruit, while massive on the nose, is more subtle on the palate while the big, spicy, rich texture of this wine is like a couple of sticks of TNT wrapped in awesomeness. The point here is that this wine is emblematic of classic Dry Creek Zin, and definitely classic Meeker.
2009 Wallstrum Vineyard Zinfandel, $34
Since the 1980s, The Meeker Vineyard has been known for classic Zinfandels that feature flavors from our Sonoma County roots: Brambly berries and rich, red dirt. With intense blackberry flavors and big tannins, this is a classic, balanced Zin that charms you with complexity but doesn't overwhelm you with jammy flavors. The fruit for this beautiful Zin comes from our longitme growers and friends in the Wallstrum family in Alexander Valley. This Zin has been the backbone of our FroZin for years, but we decided to give it a spin as a Big Red - and we don't regret it one bit.
2008 Kelly’s Cab Cabernet Sauvignon, $36
This Kelly’s Cab, you may notice, is from the Chalk Hill AVA, and boy does it like to show off. Big black cherry preserves on the nose with some plum stone fruit, some spicy cinnamon and that toasty oak that’s always around on a big Meeker Cab. Those cherries show up again on the palate along with rich cassis, hints of Madagascar vanilla bean and dusty, red Chalk Hill earth tones. The tannin structure is big, but mellow and round with the potential to age with the best of ‘em. The finish is huge, and hangs around all the way to the next sip.
NV Combination, $36 - Available only to the Tribe
Combination is just what it sounds like, only better: A multiple-vintage blend of our two biggest wines: Four Kings and Handprint. Every year we withhold some amount of the final blend of Four Kings and HP in case we need to bottle more large formats than we expected. As a result, we typically end up with a small amount of extra wine from each finished blend. Rather than bottle these separately, we combined all of them into one master blend that we’re calling Combination, named after the secret code that just might unlock the Vault. We’re not sure what the Vault combo might be, but we do know that this Combination unlocks something special: big structure, tannin, and finish. This Combination drinks like a Merlot on steroids: blackberry and stone fruit, light oak, big acidity and a long, delicate finish that will soften further with age.
NV Combination [code two], $36 - Available only to the Tribe
After the rousing reaction we got for the last Combination, we decided to make Code Two - bringing new ingredients together to make a great big wine that has the complexity of an old MasterLock you can't quite remember the combination for. With Napa Barbera, Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, Alexander Valley Merlot and Dry Creek Valley Petite Sirah, this wine has layers of fruit, tannin and acidity. Like most Meeker reds, this is a full-bodied wine that you could drink today or lay down for a few years. The nose is pure fruit and the mouthfeel is silky. Code Two boasts a lingering finish with hints of blueberry, fig and vanilla. We think this wine will go well with almost everything - from your mama's famous roasted chicken to some steaks on the grill.
2009 Winemaker’s Handprint Merlot, Sonoma County, $42
There’s a reason our Winemaker’s Handprint Merlot is known nationwide - and there’s a reason Merlot is the lead grape in some of the most expensive wines in the world. Merlot is a powerhouse, with fruit, tannin and complexity that stands up to your most muscular steak and risotto dinner or evening spent watching the stars come out. The beautiful package is no match for the gorgeous wine within - rich cherry fruit and big, intense tannins and flavor. This wine will stay bottle stable and age for at least a decade, or make a beautiful centerpiece to your Thanksgiving, Hanukkah or Christmas table. Big structure, a touch of oak, and every ounce of two years in barrel shine through with a full body and rich mouthfeel.
2008 Kiss Ridge Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, $50
This wine is like a freight train delivering huge fruit, big tannin and smoky oak. It features a great acid balance that will make this wine age - and improve - for years. On this wine train, the fruit is the locomotive, the tannin is the freight cars and the oak is the caboose making the whole package work together. On the nose, you'll get smokiness and a promise of a big, chewy mouthful of full-bodied Cab. As the flavors hit you, blackberry, plum and butter will race for your attention while the conductor brings this wine into the station. Like an old-fashioned steam locomotive, this wine gets better with age. Serve it with a meal that features many flavors - to help bring out everything this wine has to offer.
2009 Four Kings Proprietary Blend, $60
What can we say, this is Four Kings! Named for the four royal grapes in a traditional Bordeaux blend - Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot - this wine is a swirl of dark chocolate, vanilla and raspberry coulis. With the richness of a good espresso and heartiness earned in Alexander Valley's chalky soil, this is a monster wine that will age another ten years plus or make your next meal memorable - whichever you prefer. The nose has herbal hints of mint and lavender and the mouthfeel is a silky as a luxurious scarf. Molly recommends pairing this with "a bleeding slab of beef" or her legendary eggplant parmesan.
A Few Dessert Wines
2005 FroZin, Russian River Valley, $26
This dessert wine delivers incredibly fresh Zinfandel aromas and flavors, almost as if the grapes had just been picked and pressed immediately into your glass. From the first sip, the delightful fresh berry aromas and flavors invade every part of your mouth, then linger through a long, gracious finish. And the healthy acid balance ensures a long life and prevents the residual sugar from being cloying. This is truly a unique and delicious wine to be savored with, cheese, nuts, fruit or any great dessert. With anything chocolate, it's like a party in your mouth! Don't miss our famous Frozinis cocktails.
2003 Tutu Luna, $26
This Gewurztraminer, Muscat and Chenin Blanc blend is made with the freezing method Charlie invented. With low alcohol and a great acid balance, this dessert wine is fresh, fruity and great with summer desserts or as the anchor ingredient in our classic TutuTinis.
Verjus
2009 Chardonnay Verjus, Dry Creek Valley, $9
Let's hear it from the Wall Street Journal: "Verjus, also known as verjuice, is non-fermented, non-alcoholic sour juice made from unripened grapes pruned from vines in preparation for the wine harvest. The trick is to pick these grapes when they are high in acid and low in sugar." We make our Verjus from great grapes from our home valley. Great for cooking, mixing and inventing.
