How This Napa Valley Merlot Finally Earned a ‘Perfect’ 100-Point Score

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Cabernet Sauvignon is the jewel of Napa Valley, while Merlot has had far fewer fans in the last couple decades. Winemaker Chris Carpenter—who’s known for his exceptional Cabernet Sauvignon—has nonetheless remained a supporter of Merlot even when it was at its most unfashionable. “It’s an underdog, and I’ve always rooted for the underdog,” he tells Robb Report. “I’m a Chicago Bears fan, so I’ve learned to embrace that part of fandom.” Carpenter has been producing his La Jota W.S. Keyes Vineyard Merlot since 2008, and in his hands, the Merlot has certainly fared better than his beloved Monsters of the Midway. Year after year the wine has received steady, solid scores in the 90s, however perfection eluded his grasp in the eyes of major wine critics. All that changed with the 2021 vintage, when Jeb Dunnuck awarded this vineyard-designate bottling from Howell Mountain the elusive 100 points the winemaker had coveted. This is not Carpenter’s first perfect score—he’s received three 100s at Cardinale and a whopping 17 at Lokoya for Cabernet Sauvignon plus one for Caladan Cabernet Franc—but it’s his first for the oft-underappreciated variety.

While the accolade for the 2021 W.S. Keyes Merlot (La Jota also makes a Howell Mountain Merlot) may have been especially rewarding for Carpenter after having received 99 points for the 2018 from Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate and the same score for the 2019 from Jeb Dunnuck, he notes that it was particularly sweet following on the heels of the 2020 vintage, which was lost to smoke taint from wildfires. “Not having any wine in 2020 because of the smoke was a real emotional letdown,” Carpenter says. “It’s especially nice given that it’s a Merlot and that variety is always the underdog in Napa.”

Unlike other winemakers who claim to only care about the folks who will drink their offerings, Carpenter admits that he always strives to make 100-point wines. “I approach each vintage with the same focus, attention to detail, and drive for excellence,” he says. “With critics, you have to understand that they don’t always see what you see, or they are having a bad day, or they have biases they can’t get over, so they may not always rate where you would hope they do.” Of course he doesn’t only think about critics; Carpenter strongly considers the people who buy and collect his bottles, especially “how they connect with the wine, how they age wines in their collections, and what they want to discover as the wines evolve—it’s the most important aspect of the art form.”

Carpenter believes the 2020 fires had a silver lining, though. “It’s kind of crazy, but the fires the year before affected the growth patterns of the vines in the next year,” he says. “Basically, it decreased the crop load significantly, the skins were thicker, and the concentration of flavors was elevated,” Luck certainly met skill. After years of toiling in the W.S. Keyes vineyard, which sits high above the fog line at 1,825 feet on Howell Mountain, Carpenter knows how to fine-tune his farming to fit the vintage: “I am always looking for the cues the season gives me and making those small adjustments to optimize what we are presented by mother nature.” His intimate knowledge of the vineyard led to harvest decisions “driven by balance of flavor, acid and tannin,” followed by his style of low-intervention, old-school winemaking “without a tremendous amount of technology or technique that could change the vineyard signature,” he says.

Carpenter agrees with the oft-quoted claim that great wine begins in the vineyard. W.S Keyes Vineyard’s optimal light and low-yielding soils makes it ideal for Merlot, he says, but that’s not enough. It still needs to be farmed in a specific manner, with a lot of attention paid to crop yields, light exposure, canopy management, and water regime to allow his Merlot to express itself at the highest level. “It’s a variety with exceptional complexity, with its own set of flavors that are different from Cabernet Sauvignon—flavors I believe are worth exploring. It also ages well, and differently,” he says.

La Jota 2021 W.S. Keyes Vineyard Merlot is inky violet to the eye and has a bouquet of black currant, purple plum, and crushed violet with a sense of earthiness. Lush and full bodied, it opens with flavors of dark berries that are backed by notes of dried thyme, lavender, milk chocolate, and leather. Beautifully balanced with plush tannins and gorgeous acidity, this wine is drinking perfectly right now, but those who can wait will be rewarded for their patience for up to 20 years. Carpenter’s self-described competitive streak makes him want to prove that bottles from Napa Valley can “be on that same stage” as the great Merlots of the world, such as Petrus and Masseto, and with this release we firmly believe he has achieved that goal.

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