Bonterra Merlot
2017, California
This wine has aromas of black currant, black cherries and a touch of wood smoke with flavors of plums, dark berries, toasty oak and vanilla spice. In the mouth, this wine has an elegant and restrained style with nice structure and balance, soft tannins and a long finish.
$12.99 / bottle
Elizabeth Drake
Bonterra
Winemaking is an enterprise defined by the future. Vines that are planted now will slowly mature and bear fruit over time, fruit that will age in casks and bottles before finally being uncorked and enjoyed. And while all winemakers must look to the future and plan years ahead, Fetzer and its Bonterra Vineyards label has spent decades finding ways to make that future a better place.
Fetzer Vineyards has been a sustainability pioneer since the 1980s. For over two decades, the company has developed practices that are environmentally-friendly, socially responsible and economically viable. In 1990, Fetzer had the idea to create a 100 percent organic wine label – Bonterra Vineyards – and in 1992 that idea came to fruition when the first wine under the Bonterra label was released. Since then, Bonterra has become the number one selling brand of wines in the US that is made with organic grapes.
Elizabeth Drake is one of Bonterra’s sustainability specialists, a role she landed almost immediately after graduating from Cornell University. For Drake, the job was the perfect storm of her combined passions and studies—she could apply her knowledge from school in the sustainability field while also making an exciting leap into the California wine industry. At only 22 years old, it was a dream come true.