2011 Hourglass Merlot Blueline Estate

The deep ruby/purple-colored 2011 Merlot Blue Line offers lots of plum and sweet cherry notes, and no hints of herbaceousness or hollowness. It is a strong effort for this vintage, and should drink nicely for another 5-7 years. All three 2011 Blue Line cuvees looked to be lush, ripe, gorgeously fruity, pure wines with dense ruby/purple colors, lots of body and glycerin, and, surprisingly, normal alcohol levels. This appears to be a terrific vintage at Hourglass, but even at one year of age, these wines are still dominated by sensational levels of fruit. Tony Biagi, who did some terrific work at the Plumpjack winery, has joined Jeff Smith at Hourglass winery where their goal is to keep the estate wines at a high level and upgrade the Blue Line part of the portfolio that emerges from further north in Calistoga. The Blue Line group of wines performed well, obviously with the 2011s less interesting than the 2012s, although, atypically, I did like the 2011 Merlot Blue Line better than the 2011 Cabernet Sauvignon Blue Line and 2011 Cabernet Franc Blue Line. Tel. (707) 968-9332