La Muse 2018 Verite

Tasting Notes

The first thing you notice is the aroma. Violets, crushed plums and a streak of graphite that gives away the volcanic soil. La Muse 2018 leans to the Right Bank in a good way: the plumpness of the merlot comes to the fore and the cabernet franc lifts the flavors into red fruit territory. The tannins are subtle but firm, with cocoa and French oak cedar in the background. Long, flavorful finish. Drinkable by now if you let it air out.

Grape Varieties

La Muse is a Merlot-dominated wine modeled after Pomerol. The blend is usually

• 87-90% Merlot grown mainly on the clay-rich volcanic slopes of Sonoma.
• Cabernet Sauvignon: structure and graphite.
• Cabernet Franc: floral and tobacco-leaf top notes.
• A small amount of malbec or petit verdot is added for color and backbone.

Why this particular combination? Because Merlot from Sonoma, made from volcanic clay, can lack aromatic sharpness. Cabernet Franc solves that problem.

Cellaring Potential

Drink between 2026 and 2044. You can open the bottle today (decant within 2 hours), but the tannins and oak are still connected. Wait until at least 2028, when secondary notes of leather, truffles and dried flowers will emerge; store horizontally at 12-14°C, away from light.

The Producer

Verité is a project that brought together Jess Jackson's Jackson Family Wines in Sonoma with French winemaker Pierre Seillan. Seillan brought with him deep Bordeaux experience, coming from a family domaine in Gascony, estates in the Loire, and several châteaux in Bordeaux. The winery produces only three Bordeaux blends: la Joie, la Muse and Le Desir. His daughter Hélène studied oenology and now works with him We consider Vérité to be one of the most precise and serious wineries in California.

Terroir & Climate

La Muse selects its wines from more than 50 micro-lots located in Sonoma's four AVAs: Alexander Valley, Knights Valley, Chalk Hill and Bennett Valley. The bulk of the region is clay. In particular, Chalk Hill sits on volcanic ash and white tuff, and there is fog along the coast. Elevations range from 60 meters above sea level in Chalk Hill to nearly 700 meters above sea level in parts of Alexander Valley. This variation in altitude gives the blends a wide range of hues, from dark depths to red fruits.

Winemaking

Seillan calls this the "right of the soil" (droit du sol). In practice, all 50-plus sites are harvested, fermented and aged separately. This means there are hundreds of elements to choose from when blending. The barrels are French oak, toasted to varying degrees and matched not uniformly, but batch by batch. Selection decisions are made by taste, not numbers. Lab data confirms, not defines. That's why each vintage of Verité tastes like an elaborate composition, not a recipe.

Food Pairing

Merlot's plump middle and firm tannins require fat and umami. Here are a few dishes that pair well with it:

• rack of lamb, pink with rosemary and garlic.
• Plain dry-aged ribeye baked in salt.
• Lamb or duck breast with cherry or fig sauce.
• Mushroom risotto with aged parmesan cheese.

Served at 17-18°C. Decanted from 90 minutes to 2 hours. Aged hard cheeses (comte, mimolette) go well with the main course.