Marietta "Armé-Lot #3" Sonoma-Mendocino Counties Bordeaux Blend

Their newer non-vintage blends ratchet up the level of quality, such as the NV Arme Lot 3, a blend of 76% Cabernet Sauvignon, 11% Merlot and the rest Malbec and Petit Verdot. This is a big Bordeaux blend, aged up to three years in neutral oak prior to being bottled. It’s a blend of three vintages, 2011, 2012 and 2013. All the fruit comes from not only their estate, but from many of their close friends located in Sonoma and Mendocino. The wine is a 6,000-case North Coast appellation, with elegant black cherry and blackcurrant fruit as well as tobacco leaf, cedar wood, licorice and earth. It’s medium to full-bodied, lush and succulent, which is their objective. Drink it over the next 5-7 years. The Bilbro family, father and two sons Jake and Scot, continue to turn out somewhat contrarian styles of wines, non-vintage, but loaded with flavor and personality. (RP)