St. Francis Winery & Vineyards, Sonoma Valley (Sonoma County, California) Merlot 2019

 Whether Merlot will ever fully return to its glory days of the late 1980s and early 1990s remains to be seen, but in terms of sheer quality, there’s no doubt that the wines are really on the rise.  St. Francis was always among the best producers during those glory days, and clearly the team at this address is contributing to a renaissance based on the quality of this release.  Deeply colored and flavored, with excellent physical density but no overly hard edges, this features dark berry and plum notes with impressive flavor impact and persistence in the finish, along with very attractive spice accents from oak that never intrude too much on the wine’s delicious core of fruit.