This merlot exhibits rich, ripe flavors of the Dry Creek Valley. It is a medium-bodied wine that exhibits intense flavors of blackberry and cherry from the vineyard with hints of complementary barrel spices Frei Brothers Reserve is a winemaking story more than a century in the making. In 1890, Swiss immigrant Andrew Frei purchased the core of what is now Frei Ranch in Sonoma County"s Dry Creek Valley. The superb stretch of land was already a vineyard, but Frei brought it to prominence when he built a winery that produced 20,000 cases of wine annually by 1895. In 1903, Frei turned the winery over to his sons, Walter and Louis, who adopted the name Frei Brothers.PAfter the repeal of Prohibition, the vineyards caught the eye of Julio Gallo, winemaker for the rapidly expanding E. J. Gallo Winery. The Gallo family began buying grapes from Frei Ranch, eventually signing an agreement to purchase the estate"s annual wine grape crop.PWhen Andrew Frei"s descendents retired in the late 197