Our take
Merry Edwards Winery Russian River Valley Pinot Noir 2023 Red Wine
- Style
- Red wine
- Size
- 750 ml
- Grape
- Pinot Noir
- Region
- Russian River Valley
- Shelf barcode
- 0860003017517
Our take
What we make of this bottle
The 2023 on this bottle is the vintage, the year its grapes were picked, which is a different thing from how long the winery has been running. In the glass it is Pinot Noir, a red grape with relatively thin skins, used for still red wines and as one of the main grapes in many sparkling wines made by the traditional method.
We do not have a shopper rating for this wine. On flavor, regional category guides commonly point to red cherry, berry and plum in Pinot Noir, with lighter color and less tannin than Cabernet Sauvignon, and they add that site and ripeness can push it from bright and delicate toward darker and fuller.
The origin is the Russian River Valley, a wine region in Sonoma County. Regional guides tie it together by Pacific fog that moves in through the river gap, with warm afternoons and cool nights that stretch out the growing season. Merry Edwards Winery says it was founded there in 1997.
The bottle carries the single 2023 vintage, and only one regular price sits on record for it, $106.99 in our September 2026 checks.
Merry Edwards publishes alcohol and ingredient data specific to the 2023 vintage: 14.4 percent alcohol and 0.5 grams per litre of residual sugar, essentially a dry wine. For everything else about how it is made, the winery's general product page describes house practice rather than a 2023-specific account: a blend of ten vineyards across the Russian River Valley, five of them estate owned, aged nine months in French oak, drawn from seven clonal selections including Pommard, Swan and several Dijon clones. That same page's tasting notes and its critic scores are dated to the 2017 vintage and have not been refreshed since, so we treat them as a description of house style rather than a claim about the wine in this bottle.
Our call: this suits a shopper who buys on the producer's track record and does not need this vintage's own tasting note spelled out; Merry Edwards has run the winery since 1997, and the 2023 bottling carries confirmed technical data even though the descriptive copy on the winery's site is still dated to an earlier vintage. Pass if you want a current tasting note or a shopper rating to lean on; neither is on record for the 2023 wine, and only a single price has been checked so far.
The Grocery Store Wine Desk · written Sep 16, 2026 from our research file for this wine. Numbers reflect our latest checks.
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Read our take →The price we checked
Dated store checks, not a promise about your store.
- Kroger, Atlanta suburbs, GA$106.99
The regular price can vary by store and date.
From the producer
Winery history
Merry Edwards Winery says it was founded in 1997 in the Russian River Valley.
Research status
What we are still checking
Our overview above draws on the dated store feed, shopper ratings, our region and grape research, and any sourced producer facts. We are still working to confirm the current release, the full producer record, and the bottle itself, and we update this page as we learn more.
Getting to know Russian River Valley.
The Russian River Valley is linked by Pacific fog, but it is not one flat or uniform place. River corridors, hills and distance from the coast create distinct neighborhoods within the AVA.
What the name means
Russian River Valley is a federally recognized American Viticultural Area in Sonoma County. It was established in 1983 and later expanded.
How grapes grow here
Cool Pacific air and fog enter through the river gap and nearby low points. Warm afternoons and cool nights lengthen the growing season, with the strength and timing of fog varying across the valley.
What lies under the vines
The AVA includes both sedimentary and volcanic soils. Fine sandy Goldridge soils are important around Green Valley and Laguna Ridge, while other neighborhoods have alluvial, clay-rich or volcanic ground.
How large the region is
- AVA area
- The expanded AVA covers about 126,600 acres.
- Vineyard area
- About 16,000 acres are planted to wine grapes.
Places within the region
- Green Valley
- The only neighborhood inside Russian River Valley that is also a separate AVA, known for strong fog influence and Goldridge soils.
- Other neighborhoods
- Middle Reach, Laguna Ridge, Santa Rosa Plain, Sebastopol Hills and Eastern Hills describe recurring local patterns within the AVA.
Getting to know Pinot Noir.
Pinot Noir is a red grape with relatively thin skins. It is used for still red wine and as one of the main grapes in many traditional-method sparkling wines.
Category guide
What to expect in the glass
Regional category guides commonly describe red cherry, berry and plum, with lighter color and less tannin than Cabernet Sauvignon. Site and ripeness can shift it from bright and delicate to darker and fuller.
Sources: New Zealand Winegrowers; Napa Valley Vintners. Checked Aug 10, 2026. See all 105 Pinot Noir wines we cover →
Where this information comes from
- Store listing
- Price, package, product identifier. Checked Aug 10, 2026.
- Barcode
- The shelf barcode shown here is computed from the store product identifier. It has not been checked against a bottle.
- Method
- Every price, rating and fact here is a dated observation. How we check.