Home
: 2012 Shafer Napa Valley Merlot

2012 Shafer Napa Valley Merlot

SKU #1171754 92 points Wine Spectator

Outer quote mark Sleek and supple, this is exactly the style of Merlot that made the wine so popular. Floral red currant and cinnamon spice aromas lead to rich, ripe flavors of black cherry and toasty oak, with a hint of earth. (TF) Inner quote mark (11/2014)

91 points Vinous

Outer quote mark The 2012 Merlot jumps from the glass with brilliant red cherries, plums, flowers, spices and mint. With time in the glass the flavors blossom beautifully as the wine gains texture and resonance. Merlot still suffers from a less than stellar reputation in some circles, which is unfortunate. Few do it better than Shafer when it comes to capturing the fruit-driven exuberance of Merlot. (AG) Inner quote mark (12/2014)

90 points Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

Outer quote mark The 2012 Merlot, which comes in at 15.5% natural alcohol, is a beauty. It’s 91% Merlot, 7% Cabernet Sauvignon and the rest a touch of Malbec. The wine reveals notes of black cherries, tobacco leaf, mocha and darker-berried fruit with a hint of white chocolate. It’s ripe, medium to full-bodied, but fresh, elegant and well-delineated. This beauty should drink well for a decade or more. (RP) Inner quote mark (10/2014)

90 points Wine Enthusiast

Outer quote mark A Cab lover's Merlot, this wine is massively constructed, a behemoth of tobacco-laced blue fruit and smoke, nearing pie-like proportion. With time and/or a decant, it'll reveal pretty violet on the nose, and take on a sultry juiciness to overcome its weight. *Cellar Selection* (VB) Inner quote mark (6/2015)

Share |

2012 Shafer Napa Valley Merlot

Price: $74.99

Quantity:

Real Time Inventory by location:

The item you have chosen is in stock, and has inventory in at least one of our retail stores. Below is the current quantity on hand information for this product within our database. It is never more than five minutes old. Additionally, our shopping cart looks at real time inventory so when you add an item to you cart we will do an immediate check of available inventory and alert you if there are any issues.

Location	Qty
Redwood City:	1

Product turnaround time varies by location of inventory and your chosen method of shipping/pickup. For a detailed explanation click here.

Related Items

Additional Information:

Varietal:

Merlot

- A very popular red grape variety found in the great wines of St. Emilion and Pomerol. It is the most planted variety in Bordeaux, and it has also become an extremely fashionable red in many regions including California. Although it has a reputation to be smooth, and easy to drink when young, Merlot is also capable of producing extremely intense wines as well. It is often used as a blending agent with Cabernet Sauvignon.

Country:

United States

- When people consider domestic wine, they normally think about the state of California. The fine viticultural Region within California, including the Napa Valley, Sonoma, Santa Cruz Mountains, Mendocino and Santa Barbara, are capable of growing grapes of world-class quality. But there's plenty of fabulous wine coming from other states, too. Oregon, Washington and New York are also causing eyebrows (and glassware) to be raised around the world.

Sub-Region:

California

- With the explosive growth that California's wine industry has seen the past several years, it's easy to view winemaking and grape growing in the Golden State as a recent phenomenon. And while it's true that California's viticultural history is brief compared to several European countries, this state's roots date back well over 200 years. Due to the enormous response to California wine within the United States and worldwide, there are thousands of excellent and diverse wines being produced within the state each year.

Specific Appellation:

Napa Valley

- America's most famous wine region, which encompasses a varied geographical territory running about 20 miles long from the San Francisco Bay northward to the foot of Mount St. Helena. Napa's great diversity, both in terms of climate and terroir, has led to the creation of a number of smaller AVAs like Stags Leap District, Rutherford, Howell Mountain, Oakville and Mount Veeder, among others. Cabernet and chardonnay still reign supreme, but just about everything under the sun is grown in Napa Valley, in quality levels ranging from $2 jug wine to $500 a bottle California cab.

Alcohol Content (%):

15.1

Organic: