Box Wines
A wine blog with news and reviews of affordable wines

Price: $17
Maker: Souverain, Napa Valley, California
Varietal: Merlot
Packaging: 750 ml bottle, natural cork
Alcohol: 13.9%
Our Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Souverain Alexander Valley Merlot 2005 is a very pleasant red. It has a spicy berry aroma, with black cherry, plum, and chocolate notes on the palate. The finish has spice and oak with mild tannins. We liked the balance of this wine, and are looking forward to sampling some of their other wines.

Souverain has an interesting history:

The history of Souverain began in the Napa Valley in 1944 when J. Leland “Lee” Stewart harvested his first crop of wine grapes from his Howell Mountain property in the northern part of the valley. At the suggestion of his young daughter, Stewart named his winery “Souverain” (taken from the French word for “sovereign” or “supreme”), and his Cabernet Sauvignon bottlings from the 1960s were considered by many to be just that.

In the years that followed, Stewart used innovation and a natural gift for winemaking to establish Souverain as one of the great California wineries. The winery moved to the Alexander Valley when Stewart eventually sold it in 1973.

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