Keenan Winery Napa Valley Merlot 2021 (375ml) SF Chronicle The Barolos and Barberescos get

The Barolos and Barberescos get the headlines

Barrels with our same high rye mash bill were racked on the top two floors of the warehouse and never rotated

and the acidity here truly does feel like a current running through the glass

Think of it as an Atlantic answer to Northern Rhone Syrah

saltiness and sweetness that balance perfectly as perfumed wood smoke rises to envelop them all

Keenan Winery Napa Valley Merlot 2021 (375ml) SF Chronicle The Barolos and Barberescos getRobert Keenan bet in 1974 that mountainside vineyards could make world class Napa wine, planting at 1,700 feet on Spring Mountain. Decades later, the family is still proving the point with this Merlot, drawn largely from those estate slopes and rounded out with select valley floor fruit. Mountain grown Merlot tends to have more spine and savory grip than the plush valley stuff, and Keenan's leans into that structure without losing its richness. This