2013 Luna Vineyards Merlot Napa Valley is sold out.

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2013 Luna Vineyards Merlot Napa Valley 750 ml

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"I am NOT drinking any (expletive) Merlot!" — Paul Giamatti, "Sideways"

While the Academy Award-winning film “Sideways” jump-started Pinot Noir sales in Santa Barbara County, it also stuck a dagger into the heart of one of Napa Valley’s most successful varieties — Merlot. The same variety responsible for the great wines of Bordeaux’s Right Bank, including Pomerol’s Château Petrus ($4,000/bottle) and Saint-Émilion Cheval Blanc ($1,000). In a scene that sent shivers down the spines of Napa growers, Thomas Haden Church’s womanizing character Jack asked Paul Giamatti’s wine snob character Miles to join him for a glass of Merlot.

After Giamatti shouted “I’m not drinking any [expletive] Merlot!,” Merlot sales dropped, and Napa Valley growers not only stopped planting the variety, but also began grafting over some of the finest vineyards of Rutherford and Oakville to more-lucrative Cabernet Sauvignon.

Still, a few wineries stood their ground. Duckhorn Merlot “Three Palms Vineyard” led the charge. Then came Cakebread and PlumpJack. Luna was just a step behind.

We first tasted the 2013 Luna Merlot from barrel in the late spring of 2014. Drawn from two primetime vineyard sources in the Rutherford and Oakville appellations, the wine was opaque purple in color, richly textured, soft and supple, but with the structural integrity to age gracefully for a decade. The winery claimed it was their finest effort to date, and as a result, had set a release price of $36/bottle for winemaker Shawna Miller’s 2013. Aggressive? Yes. Fair? From a qualitative perspective, absolutely.

When the wine was released in early summer 2015, we tasted it again. The color remained deep purple, but the wine had tightened up, a common characteristic of the top Cabernet Sauvignons of 2013, Robert Parker’s “greatest vintage in 37 years.” Darkly concentrated and now tightly wound, it would take 45 minutes in an oversized Riedel stem for the 2013 Luna Merlot to begin to unwind. An hour later, the wine was simply beautiful — a subject not only of simple concentration, but also of poise and sophistication.

$36 on release. $13.99 today, courtesy of Paul Giamatti’s character, Miles. Shipping included on 6.