Winemaker Notes
68% Cabernet Sauvignon, 19% Cabernet Franc, and 13% Petit Verdot
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2015 Cappella should be close to perfection when it is finally released in several years. Inky bluish/purple to the rim, with blackberry, chocolate, graphite, barbecue smoke and forest floor notes, this incredibly rich, pure, structured and powerful wine is multi-dimensional, with huge levels of fruit and glycerin. To say it is a tour de force is almost an understatement. It should have 30-50 years of longevity.
Barrel Sample: 96-100 -
Jeb Dunnuck
One rocking wine, the 2015 Cappella is a powerful, rich effort that has badass levels of black, black fruits, graphite, licorice, and crushed rocks. From a site on the west side of St. Helena and a blend of 68% Cabernet Sauvignon, 19% Cabernet Franc, and 13% Petit Verdot, it has a layered, multi-dimensional, stacked profile and is just loaded with glycerin and opulence. Feel free to drink this thriller any time over the coming 3 decades or more.
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James Suckling
This is an extremely tight and fine-grained young red with spices, blackcurrants, berries and floral character, as well as black-tea and hazelnut undertones. Full-bodied and focused with a racy and linear finish. Hard to resist but one for the cellar. Drink in 2021.
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Wine Spectator
A whiff of sassafras gives way quickly to a load of boysenberry, fig and blackberry fruit flavors that cascade over one another, while polished grip and extra sweet tobacco and loam notes fill in through the finish. Broad and dense, this has the drive to match. A big wine. Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. Best from 2021 through 2040.
Undoubtedly proving its merit over and over, Napa Valley is a now a leading force in the world of prestigious red wine regions. Though Cabernet Sauvignon dominates Napa Valley, other red varieties certainly thrive here. Important but often overlooked include Merlot and other Bordeaux varieties well-regarded on their own as well as for their blending capacities. Very old vine Zinfandel represents an important historical stronghold for the region and Pinot noir is produced in the cooler southern parts, close to the San Pablo Bay.
Perfectly situated running north to south, the valley acts as a corridor, pulling cool, moist air up from the San Pablo Bay in the evenings during the hot days of the growing season, which leads to even and slow grape ripening. Furthermore the valley claims over 100 soil variations including layers of volcanic, gravel, sand and silt—a combination excellent for world-class red wine production.