Robert Keenan Winery spotlight
The official Keenan Winery channel films the Spring Mountain estate, the Mayacamas cellar behind this Napa Valley Merlot.
The market on this bottle
Wine-Searcher tracks this 2021 Robert Keenan Winery 'Keenan Napa Valley' Merlot across the open market. Their published U.S. low is $47.54 and the average is $56.79. Our slash is $20.00.
375ML 2021 Robert Keenan Winery 'Keenan Napa Valley' Merlot, USA
Keenan's Spring Mountain Merlot in a half bottle, black cherry and cocoa, a 2021 you can open at twenty dollars.
The 2021 is 100 percent Merlot, mostly estate Spring Mountain fruit with a Carneros cut: black cherry, blackberry, cassis, cocoa, and coffee bean, now $20 for 375 ml.
Mountain Merlot in a half bottle, not a 750 ml market story
Robert Keenan rebuilt a 19th-century winery at 1,700 feet on Spring Mountain. This 375 ml is the Napa Valley Merlot from that estate, mostly hillside fruit with a Carneros cut, 18 months in 33 percent new French and American oak. James Suckling scored the wine 92. Twenty dollars is a half-bottle number. It is not a 750 ml price in disguise.
The house
Robert Keenan bought 180 acres of forest on the old Conradi site in 1974. The cellar sits above the fog line in the Mayacamas.
The wine
100% Merlot. 83% estate Spring Mountain, 17% Napa Carneros. 18 months in 33% new French and American oak.
The scores
James Suckling 92. Vinous 91. Those notes describe the wine, not a half-bottle market.
The drinker
Decant 20 to 30 minutes, or pour and wait in the glass. Lamb with a Merlot pan sauce.
Black cherry, cocoa, then coffee bean
The Keenan sheet leads with intense black cherry, blackberry, and cassis, then cocoa and coffee bean as it opens. Suckling found dark cherries, chocolate wafers, vanilla, and sweet spice on creamy tannin. Galloni called it earthy and savory, with fruit in the background.
A concentrated Napa Merlot year from rocky, high-elevation soils. The half bottle is for a lamb dinner for two, not a case math problem.
Black cherry, blackberry, cassis, cocoa, coffee bean, vanilla, sweet spice.
Medium to full, creamy tannin, 18 months oak with 33% new wood.
Cocoa and earth. Decant 20 to 30 minutes. Serve 60 to 64 F.
Estate mountain Merlot, a Carneros cut, then mixed oak
On the Keenan 2021 Merlot sheet the wine is 83 percent estate Spring Mountain Merlot and 17 percent Napa Carneros Merlot. Grapes were destemmed, inoculated with Montrachet yeast, and fermented 10 to 14 days before 18 months in 33 percent new French and American barrels.
Eleven acres of Merlot sit in rocky soils around the winery. Warm days above the fog and gravelly ground concentrate the fruit. Carneros adds a little lift so the mountain wine does not go monolithic.
This SKU is 375 ml. Serve two. Do not treat it as a hidden 750 ml market.
A rebuilt mountain winery above St. Helena
Keenan is Spring Mountain history: a 19th-century ruin, a 1974 purchase, a solar-powered estate that still puts Merlot on the main stage.
No vines remained when Robert Keenan bought the Conradi site. He planted the mountain anyway, sure the elevation would make serious wine.
The Napa Valley Vintners recognize Keenan as a green, solar-powered, sustainably farmed winery.
The Napa Valley Merlot is the estate's everyday mountain red. The 375 ml is that wine in a two-person format.
Lamb, Merlot butter, and a half bottle
This Merlot wants lamb. A Merlot-butter sauce and a Greek roasted leg are the live pairing.
Two plates. One lamb with Merlot-butter sauce. One Greek roasted lamb and potatoes. Both fit a 375 ml mountain Merlot.
Decant 20 to 30 minutes, or pour and wait. Serve 60 to 64 F. The half bottle is the portion.
Lamb with Merlot-Butter Sauce
Lamb and a Merlot pan sauce, the obvious Keenan pairing.
Why it works: Merlot in the pan echoes cocoa and cassis. Lamb fat matches creamy tannin.
View Recipe for lamb with Merlot butter sauce (opens in a new tab)
Traditional Greek Roasted Lamb and Potatoes
Slow lamb, potatoes, herbs, a Sunday plate for a half bottle.
Why it works: Herb and lemon keep the mountain Merlot from feeling heavy. Potatoes catch the cocoa close.
View Recipe for Greek roasted lamb (opens in a new tab)Put this half-bottle Merlot in the cart
Keenan Spring Mountain Merlot, 375 ml, James Suckling 92. Twenty dollars.
Put it in the cart. This is mountain Merlot for two, not a 750 ml market in a smaller glass.
