Terra Vina Bella Vista Red 06 is a blend of 60% Syrah, 30% Malbec & 10% Merlot

Prior Vintage notes

Wine Spectator 88 points: "Offers plenty of ripe blackberry and currant fruit, shaded with hints of sage and toast. The fruit lingers on the harmonious finish. Malbec, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvig non, Merlot and Petit Verdot. Drink now through 2010. 100 cases made." H.S.

This wine is made from 42% Cabernet Sauvignon, 22% Cabernet Franc, 19% Merlot, 14% Malbec, and 3% Petit Verdot. All grapes were sourced from the "Six Prong" section of Elerding Vineyard. The average age of the vines is 10-15 years. Made with fruit from Elerding Vineyard's "Six Prong" site in Alderdale, the site is on a bluff overlooking the Columbia River, with chalky soil suited to Bordeaux varietals. "Six Prong" is a comparatively low yield, weather and soil stressed vineyard, producing about 3 tons of fruit per acre.

In production of this wine, the grapes were hand sorted, then lightly crushed and destemmed to break the skins but to not crush the seeds (you don't want to crush the seeds or you get tannins that create undesirable drying and "puckery" tannins in the wine). The wine was open top fermented in 1.5 ton bins after a 3-4 day cold soak. Grapes were cold soaked to get the most essence and flavor from the grape skins. The grapes were innoculated with commercial yeast, and were fermented to dryness in about 10 days at room temperature. The wine was settled in stainless steel tanks for 48 hours, then transferred to 2 year old oak barrels.

The winemaker is not fond of over-oaked wines, he likes tannins and depth of fruit flavor to come from the fruit itself, so he uses 2 year old barrels, which impart much less oak flavor to the wine. The wine was aged in barrel from November 2004 to July 2005, when it was bottled.