Winemaker Notes
With its vivid blue fruit and vibrant energy, the 2021 Pact might be a Coombsville prototype for years to come.
Dark, exotic spice-with star anise in the lead—opens on a complex nose layered with sweet tobacco, savory herb and olive notes, and a lovely vein of graphite minerality under briar-kissed blueberry. The palate is electric, its deceptive power couched in chalky, tight-knit cannins. Black raspberry joins blueberry, with wet slate and soil-driven, iron-rich minerality spilling into a long, perfectly balanced finish, serious and hedonistic at once.
Blend: 96% Cabernet Sauvignon, 2% Petit Verdot, 2% Merlot
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
So many graphite and pencil shaving aromas here with blue fruits. Slate and tar undertones. Black and red currants. Some ash. Medium-bodied with open grained tannins. So much iron and rust with lead and mussel shell. Then turns to pine cone and cedar. Really complex and flavor intensive. Love to drink it now as a young wine. This evolves all the time.
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Wine Spectator
A savory streak leads the way, with a core of acai, black currant and blueberry reduction notes following closely, while cool cast iron and graphite details lengthen the finish and offer a sense of place. This could use a touch of cellaring to round fully into form. Best from 2025 through 2035. Tasted twice, with consistent notes. 3,500 cases made.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Sourced from Coombsville, Faust's 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon The Pact features scents of mint, cedar and cassis on the nose. It aged in 45% new French oak (Seguin-Moreau, Taransaud, François Frères), resulting in a wine that's full-bodied but structured, streamlined and focused. Mocha and dark chocolate emerge on the long, gently tannic finish. It's a well-struck drive, right down the middle of the fairway.
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.
Situated in the southeastern corner of Napa Valley in the Vaca range, the vineyards of the Coombsville AVA enjoy a long growing season mitigated by cool, San Pablo Bay fog.