2015 Roberta's Reserve
Buying options
Tasting notes
The 2015 Roberta’s Reserve, 100% Merlot, is just starting to open aromatically. Sumptuous dark fruit, new leather, licorice, chocolate and espresso are all dialed up. The intensity of the warm year marked by drought comes through in the wine's ripe profile, but the tannins are ripe and the balance is impeccable. Readers can look forward to another decade or so of exceptional drinking. This is really in the sweet spot today. Superb.
Critic scores
James Suckling
Jeb Dunnuck
More reviews and scores
Saturated ruby-red. Brooding, medicinal scents of dark cherry, menthol and licorice. Boasts outstanding breadth and density of material, with its expressive flavors of black cherry, dark berries, spices and bitter chocolate complicated by salty minerality and lifted by a subtle floral quality. This distinctly soil-driven wine is showing more personality today than the '16 and should reach its plane of peak drinkability earlier. And yet my sample tightened up in the glass to show a rather powerful tannic spine. (14.4% alcohol; 100% Merlot; from fruit harvested three weeks earlier than in 2016; 88% new French, 3% new Hungarian and 9% second-fill French) (ST)
A juicy and rich red with dark berries, hazelnuts and chocolate. Some tile, too. Full and juicy with lots of fruit. Hints of salt, crushed stones and oyster shell. A pure merlot this year. Layered and juicy.
The 2015 Roberta's Reserve offers serious density and pure power. Silky tannins add to an impression of plushness in this flamboyant Merlot. Blackberry jam, licorice, dark cherry, chocolate and sweet spices lead into the racy finish. This is a decidedly extroverted version of the Roberta's. In 2015, the Roberta's is 100% Merlot, whereas most vintages made to date have included some blenders.