2018 Mer Soleil Pinot Noir Reserve Santa Lucia Highlands 750 ml

The family that created Caymus Cabernets—their Special Selection Cabernet the only wine to win Wine Spectator’s Wine of the Year twice—have extended their golden touch to the fog-shrouded slopes of the Santa Lucia Highlands. The result: a showstopping Cabernet-lover’s Pinot Noir that shows its blue-chip DNA through extraordinary value and brooding dark-fruited boldness. 

Tapping into the Wagner family’s signature depth and richness while capturing the sea-spray and rose-petal nuance that only coastal Pinot Noir can express, the 2018 Mer Soleil Reserve makes clear that the pedigree of Wagner family wines can’t be confined by Napa Valley—it follows wherever they go.

Vinous was quick to highlight the brilliance of the 2018 Reserve, calling it “appealingly sweet and focused on the palate,” “seamless in texture,” and “extremely long and floral, with resonating spiciness.” 

While the charismatic 2018 Reserve Pinot Noir is only the third vintage produced under the Mer Soleil label, its fast ascent hardly represents an overnight success. The roots of this carefully tended project—and its capacity to over-deliver on value—stretch back more than 30 years, and are a direct result of the Wagners’ deep connections to the land. 

Only a few California wine families could pull off an overachiever like this. The Pinot Noir equivalent to Caymus, America’s great steakhouse Cabernet, it's a knockout opportunity from one of California’s first families of wine. 

In the New World, there is hardly a more pioneering, salt-of-the-earth winemaking legacy than that of the Wagner family. Over 150 years of California winemaking experience uniquely position the 2018 Mer Soleil to deliver a stunning blend of “power and delicacy,” as Vinous put it. 

Stretching back to the 1850s, the Wagners were a family of farmers with deep roots in the Napa Valley. In 1972, Chuck started Caymus Vineyards with his parents, Charlie and Lorna. Today, Caymus is one of Napa Valley’s crown jewels. 

In the late 1980s, before vineyard prices soared and the Central Coast became a hotbed for world-class Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, Chuck Wagner handpicked a large swath of land in the Santa Lucia Highlands. It’s located just east of Talbott’s Sleepy Hollow Vineyard in what Wine Spectator now calls “the star district.”

In 1988, Chuck and his son Charlie planted the first Mer Soleil vineyards to Chardonnay on these rugged, virgin vineyard soils mixed with gravel and loam, just a stone’s throw from the roaring Pacific. Here, stiff maritime winds take the bite out of Monterey’s summer sun, refreshing the vines while stretching out the growing season for ideal ripeness. 

Winemaker Charlie Wagner coaxes graphite and smoke, rose petal and mint from fully mature Pinot Noir vines that are ready to display their complexity as much as their dark-fruited generosity. 

The 2018 Mer Soleil Reserve Pinot Noir is the multi-generational culmination of a legendary California winegrowing legacy, and it tastes like it: bold yet rooted, elevated and polished yet charming and authentic. Don’t miss it.