2020 Duckhorn Vineyards Three Palms Vineyard Merlot Napa Valley 750 ml

Any conversation about the greatest Cabernet vineyard in Napa Valley is bound to get heated. Any about the greatest Merlot site is bound to be short. That’s because there’s little argument that the grape’s greatest glory lies in the Three Palms Vineyard—and the bottle that captures it best is Duckhorn’s iconic Three Palms Merlot.

Through the decades, as trends have come and gone, Duckhorn’s Three Palms Vineyard has stood fast as the gold standard of Napa Merlot: the voluminous, richly textured benchmark all others are measured against. It sparked the California Merlot boom in the 80s and has been decimating expense accounts at blue-chip chophouses ever since. But to really understand just how remarkable its run has been up to the present day—Three Palms won Wine Spectator’s Wine of the Year in 2017—you have to close your eyes and imagine the site as it was when John and Sloan Upton purchased it in 1967.

The Uptons got it for cheap, because no one else knew what to do with the bleak, barren rocky land that barely produced enough grass for cows to graze on. But the Uptons had a hunch about this spot, with its three distinct palm trees jutting up into the sky. 

Turns out they were dead right. That rocky, unforgiving soil forces vine roots deep to create character and complexity. The heat requires constant vigilance in the vineyards and provides this with its trademark full-bodied lushness. 

Today, those palm trees are a towering monument on the Silverado Trail—one that makes tourists and locals alike stop for a roadside selfie—and the wine made there stands just as tall. There’s really nothing else like it.