As Monterey's largest family-owned grape growers and winemakers, the Scheid family may not be the first to see their name in person, but their grapes are used by many of the region's most prestigious wineries.
The Scheid Vineyards series is a rare wine from the Scheid family, one of the few in the United States to generate its own wind power and to be committed to sustainability, and which can usually only be purchased by visiting the tasting room.
<Limited quantity> Merlot is the new standard of the future.
After years of being mistreated, Merlot now walks confidently onto your table and in your glass, bursting with red fruit, soft tannins and approachable softness.
It opens with aromas of fresh wild berries and vanilla, followed by smooth flavors of blackberry, black cherry, plum and boysenberry, framed by gentle acidity and lightly toasted wood aromas.
Additionally, refreshing berry pie flavors fill the mouth and lead to a long, enticing finish.
This wine is perfect for vegetarians and also goes well with hearty beef dishes.
Merlot is knocking on your door right now.
The 2018 Merlot was primarily harvested from our two estate-owned vineyards in San Lucas and Hames Valley.
San Lucas is located in Greenfield, south of the winery.
Here, the days are long and warm, but when the sun goes down it cools dramatically, and the large difference in temperature between day and night gives the blackberries a rich fruit flavor and a soft texture.
Hames Valley is located at the southern end of Monterey, and here too there is a large difference in temperature between day and night, typically up to 10 degrees.
The result is a beautifully balanced wine with rich fruitiness, subtle spiciness and green nuances.
The 2018 growing season was one of the mildest vintages in recent years.
Timely rainfall at just the right time and a cooler than average spring meant flowering was slightly delayed until June.
Then, with temperatures rising properly in August, fruit growth and pigment development caught up.
Autumn conditions were perfect with mild temperatures and no heavy rainfall, allowing the grapes to ripen slowly and steadily.
The result is a winemaker's dream: amazing fruit with incredible quality and flavor potential.
Upon arrival at the winery, the grapes are destemmed, crushed and fermented in 1.5 ton open-top fermenters.
Punchdowns were performed twice daily for two weeks.
After gentle racking, the wine is barrel aged for 20 months in 59% French oak, 23% American oak, and 18% Hungarian oak.
After bottling, the wine was aged for a further 8 months before release.
Great to drink now, but will taste even better with further aging.
Scheid Vineyards founder, Al Scheid, first purchased 15 acres of land on the outskirts of Greenfield, California in 1972.
At the time, wine grape growing was in its infancy in Monterey County, but Al was attracted to the region's winemaking potential.
So they consulted with Professor A.J. Winkler, an authority on grape cultivation at the University of California, Davis, who had created a climate region distribution map for grape cultivation in 1960, and gradually purchased land within Monterey County, which covers regions from Region I to Region IV, and planted grape varieties suitable for each region.
Founded by Al, Scheid Vineyards grew steadily and continued to grow with the addition of his son Scott in 1986, grape growing specialist Kurt Gornick in 1988, and his daughter Heidi in 1992.
The company now owns 12 vineyards (totaling 1,600 hectares) in the Salinas Valley, which stretches 112 km from north to south, from Region I to Region IV.
The company also built a state-of-the-art winery with a production capacity of 1.8 million cases, as well as a smaller winery for handcrafted wines, and continues to produce world-class Monterey wines.