Red Wine: 2011 | Verite | La Muse

Shows complex black plum, boysenberry and blueberry flavors, with pronounced non-fruit layers of menthol, chocolate powder, fresh pine bark and toasted sage. The palate is defined by ripe, powdery tannin’s and underscored by a zing of balancing acidity, which brings the picture into full focus.

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Producer: Verite

Ratings: WA | 91 JD | 96

Vintage: 2011

Size: 750ml

ABV: 14.5%

Varietal: Bordeaux Blend Red

Country/Region: United States, California

Shows complex black plum, boysenberry and blueberry flavors, with pronounced non-fruit layers of menthol, chocolate powder, fresh pine bark and toasted sage. The palate is defined by ripe, powdery tannin’s and underscored by a zing of balancing acidity, which brings the picture into full focus.

Reviews:

• Wine Advocate: Exhibits a dense ruby color along with attractive aromas of Christmas fruitcake, sweet baking spices, red and blackcurrants and licorice.

• Jeb Dunnuck: From a cool, more difficult year for northern California, the 2011 La Muse nevertheless is brilliant. Not harvested until the third week of September, it has incredible complexity in its red and black currant fruit, chocolate, tobacco, and underbrush aromas and flavors. Full-bodied, rounded, supple, and seamless, with the hallmark elegance and purity of this estate, its drinking beautifully today yet will keep for another two decades or more.

Producer Information

Vrit Winery is a wine producer based in Sonoma County in California. It is most famous for its three Bordeaux-styled blends: La Muse, La Joie, and Le Dsir, which have all received 100-point scores from American wine critic Robert Parker over several vintages. Winemaker Pierre Seillan got his start working with Bordeaux varieties at his family’s estate in Armagnac. Before moving to the United States, he worked at Chteau de Targ in Saumur-Champigny in the Loire Valley, and at several chteaux in Bordeaux. Upon meeting California wine pioneer Jess Jackson in the 1990s, Seillan was convinced to move to Sonoma to make Bordeaux blend wines. Vrit sources fruit from the Alexander Valley, Bennett Valley, Knights Valley and Chalk Hill AVAs in Sonoma County. This range of sites provides more than 40 different types of soil, a range of altitudes and several different mesoclimates. Each vineyard block is vinified separately before a final blend for each wine is created. In a slight departure from the standard approach, Seillan made a 100 percent Tannat from Alexander Mountain Estate (which sits on the western Mayacamas Mountains overlooking the Alexander Valley) in 2010, although it appears this wine was a one-off. The three Vrit blends are dominated by a different Bordeaux variety. La Muse is Merlot-based, La Joie is Cabernet Sauvignon-based, and Le Dsir is primarily Cabernet Franc. Due to the wines’ success with the press, they are only available through a mailing list. The wines are still made by Seillan, although he is now joined by his daughter, Hlne, who has taken over assistant winemaker duties. Jess Jackson died in 2011.