Merry Edwards Olivet Lane Pinot Noir 2016
-
Wine
Enthusiast -
Tasting
Panel -
Wine
Spectator
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
-
Wine Enthusiast
Broadly fleshy and expansive on the palate, this is a lovely, powerful wine, spicy in forest pine and clove. Succulent on the midpalate, it offers an array of well-defined citrus and wild strawberry, with a lingering quality to the finish that impresses in rose petal and lavender.
-
Tasting Panel
A complex, showy wine with exciting aromas of baked cherry pie, dark blackberry jam, and cherry cordial. Profuse scents of violet, lavender, and red roses add elegance while lush hints of olive tapenade, cola, black pepper, and rich French oak complete the portrait. With its Russian River Valley acidity, it’s a lovely, food-friendly expression of this famed vineyard that’s deep with abundant minerals and spices and ripe with soft tannins and great depth.
-
Wine Spectator
Tightly wound, with a mix of loamy earth and dried berry flavors amid sage and cedar notes. This doesn't move beyond that stage for now but time may help. Best from 2019 through 2025.
Other Vintages
2018-
Tasting
Panel -
Wine
Enthusiast
-
Wine
Enthusiast -
Robert
Parker
-
Wine
Enthusiast -
Wine
Spectator
-
James
Suckling -
Wine
Enthusiast -
Robert
Parker
-
Wine
Enthusiast
Merry Edwards Winery was founded in 1997 and produces critically acclaimed terroir-driven Pinot Noirs and Sauvignon Blanc using site-specific viticulture in the Russian River Valley and Sonoma Coast appellations. Over two decades, Merry assembled a stellar collection of vineyards and with her meticulous attention to detail crafted Pinot Noirs of immense depth, elegant structure and exceptional longevity. Her Sauvignon Blanc is among the most sought after in the world.
Now a Certified California Sustainable Winery, the brand entered a new chapter after Merry’s retirement. Merry’s handpicked successor, Winemaker Heidi von der Mehden, and Winery President Nicole Carter have taken up exactly where Merry left off and will continue to make wines treasured by legions of Merry Edwards’ fans well into the future.
While the Russian River Valley is a large appellation with multiple climate zones and soil types, it is best known for cool-climate varieties, with Pinot Noir as the most celebrated. The grapes benefit from a reliable late afternoon flow of Pacific Ocean fog through the Petaluma Gap and along the Russian River Valley that ensures slow and steady ripening and the preservation of grape acidity. Today many of California’s most highly regarded Pinot Noir vineyards are in the Russian River Valley, along with its sub-appellation, Green Valley.
Historically Russian River Valley Pinot Noirs had bright red fruit and delicate earthy, mineral notes. But changes in viticultural and winemaking practices have led to stylistic changes in some of the region’s wines. Adjustments to canopy management, among other techniques, have resulted in riper fruit and bolder wines as well. These show flavors of black cherry, blackberry, cola, spice and darker, loamy earth tones, accenting traditional Pinot Noir notes of strawberry, raspberry and light cherry.