Aperture Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2018
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Robert
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Jeb
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James
Suckling
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
This year's blend achieves full-bodied and elegant, offering layered, ripe fruit impressions - blackberries, cassis, and ripe blueberries. The mouth feel is dense and round, with smooth, expertly structured tannins and subtle dark chocolate, vanilla bean and light spice notes leading to an extended and lasting finish.
Blend: 86% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% Malbec, 5% Merlot, 2% Petit Verdot
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon is a blend of 86% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% Malbec, 5% Merlot and 2% Petit Verdot. Opaque ruby purple in the glass, it has an incredible perfume loaded with floral nuances, its cassis and boysenberry fruit tempered by a mineral streak and accented by notes of dried thyme, fresh tobacco leaves, mint chocolate, coffee and bay leaves. The palate is stunning, powerful but silky and fresh, lushly fruited and nuanced and finishing very long. While this 2018 is approachable and utterly delicious now, it will reward cellaring and should be very long lived.
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Tasting Panel
Lush and round, this is a luxury sip that exhibits mouthcoating, generous notes of licorice-washed slate and black plum with chalky tannins. The lathered and opulent fruit pops.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Soil Specific checks in as 86% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% Malbec, 5% Merlot, and 2% Petit Verdot sourced from the easter hillsides of the Alexander Valle, aged 18 months in 50% new French oak. Lots of ripe black and blue fruits, damp earth, tobacco, spice, graphite, chocolate, and licorice all emerge from the glass. Medium to full-bodied, this rich, meaty, chewy, mineral-laced Cabernet has enough structure to warrant 3-4 years of bottle age. It's another beautiful, singular, concentrated yet balanced Cabernet from Katz that will evolve for two decades or more.
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Wine Enthusiast
With small percentages of Malbec, Merlot and Petit Verdot, this red succeeds in its cohesion and sense of richness. Supple tannins support a cors of juicy red and blue fruit within an expansive and well-structured foundation of integrated Oak.
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James Suckling
A nose with hints of cassis, blueberry and sweet tobacco. Full-bodied with fine tannins. Balanced with a round, creamy texture. Integrated and refined tannins with a beautiful center-palate.
Other Vintages
2021-
Robert
Parker
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Robert
Parker
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Robert
Parker -
Jeb
Dunnuck
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James
Suckling -
Robert
Parker -
Wine
Enthusiast -
Jeb
Dunnuck
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Jeb
Dunnuck -
Robert
Parker -
James
Suckling -
Wine
Enthusiast
Never mind the six million album covers around the world that feature Andy Katz’s photographs, or his dozen books of gorgeous photos that grace countless coffee tables around the country, or the many awards on his mantel earned from five decades of work around the world. It was all an excuse. An excuse to drink world class wine. To learn what it takes to make world class wine. And to spend time with his young son Jesse. Andy brought Jesse to the the most famous vineyards on earth, from the heart of Burgundy to the hills of Tuscany. He may not have admitted it at the time, but Andy’s gambit worked. Barely a decade later, Jesse is now one of the most exciting — and accomplished — winemakers in the world, recently gracing the cover of Wine Enthusiast as a rising young star who is doing nothing less than “changing the way the world drinks.” The son of a man who, through his photographs, changes the way the world sees wine. It’s a perfect combination. Jesse supplies the grapes, Andy supplies the images. And together they make wines worthy of their travels. Aperture. World class wines. Katz and Katz. A world class pairing.
A noble variety bestowed with both power and concentration, Cabernet Sauvignon enjoys success all over the globe, its best examples showing potential to age beautifully for decades. Cabernet Sauvignon flourishes in Bordeaux's Medoc where it is often blended with Merlot and smaller amounts of some combination of Cabernet Franc, Malbecand Petit Verdot. In the Napa Valley, ‘Cab’ is responsible for some of the world’s most prestigious, age-worthy and sought-after “cult” wines. Somm Secret—DNA profiling in 1997 revealed that Cabernet Sauvignon was born from a spontaneous crossing of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc in 17th century southwest France.
Nearly a northern extension of Napa Valley, Alexander Valley starts just north of the small, Knights Valley, and is just a few minutes drive from the Napa town of Calistoga. It is Sonoma County’s hottest AVA. But the Russian River, which runs through the valley, creates cooler pockets and its soft, alluvial soil is ideal for grape growing, especially Cabernet Sauvignon. In fact, some believe that Alexander Valley Cabernets truly rival the best from Napa Valley and many of the heavy-hitter producers have largely invested here.
In addition to Cabernet Sauvignon, which makes up over 50% of plantings, Merlot and old vine Zinfandel thrive here. Ample, fleshy Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc dominate white wine production. Some old-vine plantings of Grenache have also been discovered and more recent experiments with Sangiovese and Barbera show great promise.