Pour a glass, hold each other close, and watch the world fall apart together.

If you're anything like us, you had big plans, lofty dreams, and high hopes for 2020 that, well, probably got punched in the face. Now for 2021, we have a completely new mindset. Maybe it's because we're scarred and calloused from the past year, or maybe we've just lost our fucking minds, but if it's all gonna burn down, we're gonna enjoy it with the ones we love.

And we can't think of a better wine to do it with than High Hopes, a 2018 red blend that is dangerously drinkable. To make this nihilistic masterpiece, we went to the Russian River Valley and sourced Merlot from Wood Road Vineyard's 24-year-old blocks. Comprising 95% of this blend, we love Merlot for its body, soft tannins, and its range of flavors, which we'll get to. As a complement, Bertus found this killer Malbec from the Saureel Vineyard in the Sierra Foothills.

But the star here really is the Merlot. We really wanted to fulfill the full Bordeaux potential of this wine, so we aged it for 24 months in neutral French oak to really let it think about what it wanted to be when it grew up. And unlike us during adolescence, it made some good decisions.

Medium in body with a sexy scarlet hue, we're really stoked with how pretty this wine looks. It smells even better with fresh herbalicious (it's a word, google it) aromas blooming out of the glass. In your mouth, it's all about the bright, exuberant red fruit with punchy flavors of cherry and raspberry joined by notes of rosemary and sage. This is a Pinot lover's Merlot blend and we're happy to drink this all day until they come to arrest us.

Because we're stupid, we only made 295 cases of this amazing wine, so grab it before everything crumbles.