Pass Wines First & North Merlot Coombsville 2019

It is the dream of many young winemakers to foster their own brand, though the traditional path of purchasing a vineyard and estate has become increasingly unattainable due to inflated land prices and a general oversaturation of Napa Valley. Still, the determined always find a way, as is the case with winemaker Ryan Pass and his newly launched family brand, Pass Wines. Though still quite young in his career, Ryan has worked the last seven harvests at Farella Vineyard in Coombsville, one of the original family-owned estates in the AVA and the first estate to grow, and consequently champion, Cabernet Sauvignon in Coombsville. His mentor, Tom Farella, instilled in Ryan that winemaking can and should be more of an art, inspired by well-trained instincts and a watchful eye on the weather (they are both self-proclaimed weather nerds). This kind of philosophic training allowed Ryan to develop his winemaking skills beyond the ABCs of cellar and lab work. Instead, he’s grown to understand winemaking in more of a holistic sense, which, in turn, gave him the confidence to launch his own brand. An old bottle of Farella Merlot was what initially attracted Ryan to his current position, and so it was without question that Pass Wines would feature Merlots.

When calling his harvest date, Ryan aims for a perfect balance between optimal ripeness as well as sugar levels that would allow for a shockingly low alcohol content.  The wine fermented with native yeast and bacteria before aging in neutral French oak.