VENN is the Young family’s playground their experimental project at the boutique St. Helena estate, where they pull Napa Merlot in unexpected directions. This bottling is carbonic, fermented whole-cluster in the Beaujolais manner, which gives Merlot a totally different face: bright, juicy, perfumed, and built around fruit rather than oak or structure. It’s Napa Merlot you’d want to chill slightly and pour through dinner. Proof that the variety has more range than its reputation suggests.