Tasted not long before its late summer bottling, Millers’ 2010 Merlot evokes chocolate-covered cherries in its soft, broad, and slightly dull palate impression, but there is enough primary juiciness as well as interesting hints of toasted nuts and pencil lead for the finish to satisfy. I suspect this will be best enjoyed in its first 12-18 months.
Airfield estates – named for a former military base on its site – is an example of a Washington winery that opened with the intention of being entirely an estate-bottler, showcasing fruit from a location farmed by Mike Miller since 1968 (“when nobody but Canadian home winemakers wanted Washington grapes,” he’s not the first to tell me, “but later, for a long time, we were able to sell most of our crop to Ste Michelle”). An interesting recent innovation is use of reflective tarp on the vineyard surface. Son Marcus – originally trained in business – has interned internationally and since 2005 taken over the cellar. The Millers make 27 different wines (and manage to keep coming up with clever aeronautic allusions for labeling them), choosing to emphasize in our tasting 2010 vintage reds that have been bottled since. While most of the wines I tasted on this occasion could be at least marginally recommended, herbaceous, bitter, and drying elements were sometime problematic. This is an enthusiastic, open, and articulate father-son team, so one can anticipate improvements.
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