The Abeja 2010 Merlot relies on fruit from Sagemoor (Bacchus and Dionysus) Vineyards with a small admixture of estate fruit from Heather Hill Vineyard, and is raised in 40% new and the rest second-fill barriques. Lightly-cooked purple plum, dark cherry, and beet root are tinged with cardamom and cinnamon; and an at once rich and saliva-inducing suggestion of salted caramel – enhanced by a polished texture – carries into a sustained and attractively bright finish. The low-key satisfaction on tap here strikes me as best taken advantage of over the next 2-3 years, though I lack direct experience of this bottling with significant age. (The corresponding 2009 was at once a bit gummy and a tad bitter by comparison.)
The Mill Creek Vineyard homestead of Abeja founders Ken and Ginger Harrison east of Walla Walla is as yet a relatively minor source of their grapes, the most important estate-grown portion originating in Heather Hill Vineyard, east of Seven Hills in the Blue Mountain foothills south of town, which Harrison planted a year before he incorporated the winery. Veteran (California and Washington) winemaker John Abbott has been a partner from Abeja’s 2002 inception. (“Mill Creek,” incidentally, has not and is unlikely to ever be used on a label. Instead, given the existence of the eponymous vineyard in Sonoma, this particular Mill Creek will probably soon be re-named.) Fermentations here are usually via inoculation, with yeast strains matched to grape and stylistic intention, but in any event to the extent possible “neutral.” The young red wines are pressed at or shortly before reaching dryness, and malolactic transformation, too, is via inoculation, prior to the completion of alcoholic fermentation. Fermentative skin contact was extended in 2011 after Abbott concluded that this was a good way to compensate for the high acidity of 2010 fruit, even though, due to tank capacity in the cellar, few lots from that earlier vintage were able to benefit from this insight. As my notes and scores demonstrate, things only get impressive here when one arrives at the Cabernets; but then, these represent collectively roughly three-quarters of Abeja’s production, and at the reserve end are superb. Abbott candidly explains the evolution of his Cabernets since 2007. “I asked myself, having made 20 vintages in Washington, was there something I would like to do better, to go beyond where we are now as a winery? I thought this could be a little in the aromatics and a little in the mouth expression. My background is microbiology. Our wines were very solid, but maybe to the point of being a little bit squeaky clean. Not that I want volatile acidity or brettanomyces, but we’ve really backed off on enzymatics, we’re tasting all the lots twice a week and letting them kind of tell us when they’re ready for SO2 or racking; and we’ve doing some native ferments.” He adds, in keeping with his old profession, that (surely unlike most vintners) he’s regularly literally putting his musts and wines under the microscope!
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