2016 Duckhorn Vineyards Three Palms Vineyard Merlot Napa Valley 750 ml

Pauper to Prince: The Unlikely Origin of Napa’s Most Famous Merlot

Has a more iconic wine ever come out of a more unprepossessing site? Through the decades, as trends have come and gone, Duckhorn’s Three Palms Vineyard has stood fast as the gold standard of Napa Merlot, the voluminous, richly textured, black-cherry-infused benchmark all others are measured against. It’s the wine that famously inaugurated the Merlot boom, evaporating expense accounts at blue-chip chophouses. But to really understand just how remarkable its run has been up to the present day—winning Wine Spectator’s Wine of the Year in 2017—you have to close your eyes and imagine the site as it was when John and Sloan Upton purchased it in 1967.

The Uptons got it for cheap—no one else knew what to do with the land—bleak, barren and rocky—that barely produced enough grass for cows to graze on. On top of that, it’s hot, one of the warmest spots in the valley, unrelieved by damp, cold fogs or refreshing breezes that balance out other sites—or, for that matter, afford the kind of cooler conditions that Merlot typically requires. Dry, dusty, and poor, it’s nobody’s idea of a gold mine. Yet the Uptons had a hunch about this spot, with its three funny palm trees jutting up into the sky, and they were dead on.

Today, those palm trees are a towering celebrity on the Silverado Trail—one that makes tourists and locals alike stop for a roadside selfie—and the wine deserves its luminary status. Opulent, plum-scented, and cashmere-smooth, we’re thrilled to share Duckhorn’s flagship 2016 release, but don’t advise waiting until the ink dries on the critic scores.  We’ve only got 28 cases to share with the fastest among you.

In the late 70s, Dan and Margaret Duckhorn started buying Three Palms fruit, and the rest is history, with the winery acquiring the property itself in 2015. Some things are classic for a reason, and there’s no better proof than this timeless release and collector favorite which has proved astoundingly consistent from year to year. Wonderfully rich, voluminous and opulent, buttressed by benchmark Right Bank structure and showing vibrant aromas of ripe plum, raspberry and black cherry, this is still every steak lover’s dream wine.

You can wait for the critics’ scores and hope to snag one of a dwindling number of bottles, or buy today at a Wine Access special price and stow away for your next special occasion.

The challenges of the Three Palms site also lend the vineyard its unique strengths. That rocky, unforgiving soil forces vine roots 18 feet underground through loam and sand, pulling up complex minerality into the grapes and, as the vines have aged, ever more richly concentrated fruit. The heat, while requiring constant vigilance in the vineyards, also provides the Three Palms Vineyards cuvée with its trademark full-bodied lushness. There’s really nothing else like it, and 2016 is one of the best examples we’ve tasted in a decade.