Blackbird Vineyards

"With Blackbird, I've found a vineyard that can produce a world-class wine, with a Merlot in the style of the 'Garagiste' wines that have grown to prominence in the last 25 years, with a nod to the classics on the right bank."
- Michael Polenske, Proprietor

Since 1999, the Blackbird Vineyard (a former walnut orchard first planted with 5,717 Merlot vines in 1997), quietly provided fruit to many of Napa's finest winemakers, for whom it yielded astonishing comments from Napa Valley veterans and noteworthy editorialists. Purchased by Michael Polenske in 2003, Blackbird Vineyards is now an ultra premium label in its own right. Fittingly, the word 'Merlot' is French patois for 'little blackbird.'

An early harbinger of Blackbird's potential arose when Mia Klein of Dalla Valle fame created a Blackbird Vineyard designate for her highly acclaimed 1999 Selene Merlot (no less than 95% of the fruit in the bottle must be from the named vineyard). Three of the top wine critics in the industry - Robert Parker, Stephen Tanzer, and Wine Spectator's James Laube - scored this wine in the 90s.

www.blackbirdvineyards.com