2019 Pride Mountain Vineyards Merlot 750 ml

Napa Valley’s iconic mountain-grown Merlot.

Say those words to any California wine collector, and we’d bet their mind goes exactly where ours does: Pride Mountain. The name alone evokes the opaque core, the brooding black fruit, and the fine-grained tannins that have made Pride the platonic ideal for high-altitude, densely packed, ageworthy Merlot.

Back when Jim and Carolyn Pride founded Pride Mountain Vineyards, you’d hardly see a sign of humanity on the drive to their property at the top of Spring Mountain. These days, it’s not too different. A few wineries have popped up on Spring Mountain Road in the last three decades, but Pride still feels about as far-flung as it did in 1989.

Just a few years after their first vintage, Pride was racking up 98- and 99-point scores from Robert Parker, who said “these wines catapult Pride Mountain into the top echelon of California's quality wineries.” Now Pride—which has come to stand for Napa Valley mountain reds in all their dark, intense, and cellarworthy glory—has become a regular on magazine covers and Top 100 lists.

It’s not just the solitude that makes this 235-acre, 2100’ site special, nor is it the view, which beats just about any other in Northern California. It’s the conditions, some of which are special to mountain sites, and some that are unique to Pride. Like the best high-altitude sites, Pride sits above the fog line. That means daylong sunshine and cool mountain air, which combine to make for slow, steady, ideal ripening.

The result is one of Napa Valley’s most iconic red wines—one that deserves its place of honor in collectors’ cellars and MICHELIN-starred wine lists.