Decoy Limited Alexander Valley Merlot

Two dates sit in Decoy's own story, and both belong to the company rather than to this bottle: by its account the brand began in 1985 and became a stand-alone winery in 2008. The grape is Merlot, and the stated origin is Alexander Valley, in northern Sonoma County.

Regional guides describe Alexander Valley as an American Viticultural Area that runs about 20 miles along the Russian River and the benchland beside it, a name more exact than a label reading only California or Sonoma County. Those guides note warm, dry summers cooled by Pacific air drawn inland along the river, with the swing from day to night and the reach of that cooling changing from one part of the valley to the next. Merlot itself, those guides add, tends to ripen earlier than Cabernet Sauvignon and to come out rounder, with plum and other dark fruit and, in many wines, a gentler tannin; that describes the grape in general, not this bottle, which in our September 2026 checks carried a shelf price from $26.99 to $39.99.

We do not have a shopper rating for this bottle, though across the wines that carry ratings the median is 4.71 out of five. We do not have a tasting note confirmed for this particular Merlot. We saw it at ten stores in our September 2026 checks.

The Grocery Store Wine Desk · written Sep 16, 2026 from our research file for this wine. Numbers reflect our latest checks.