Merriam - Barrel Room

Winemaking
Inspired by French styles of winemaking

Our less-is-better approach

In the less-is-better tradition of Old World winemaking, our wines are crafted with minimal intervention. The reason we do this is because so much work is done in the vineyard that we don’t want to change the flavors as nature intended. We take extreme care with every step of the process; grapes are picked, sorted of debris, and placed in small batch fermentation tanks all by hand. In the production of our Bordeaux and Burgundy-style wines, blending is the most important step once wines have undergone fermentation.

French oak barrels bring another level of complexity in our blending process. Wines that are bold with restraint, elegance and balance.

- Peter Merriam

Will Weese, Winemaker

Will oversees all of the winemaking at Merriam Vineyards.  During blending sessions he tastes each wine twice and make decisions about different cooperages, degree of toasts, color, flavors, and varietal balance. Once the final decisions are made, each wine goes back into the barrel for the next six to twelve months prior to bottling, a process that encourages harmony in the finished wines. Blending and keeping specific lots separated throughout the process are important in our winemaking process.

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Merriam - William Weese