Winemaker Notes
Blend: 70% Merlot, 30% Cabernet Franc
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
This estate has excelled with its Right Bank blend, a St.-Emilion look-alike, since it was first introduced. The 2010 Right Bank, a blend of 70% Merlot and 30% Cabernet Franc, offers attractive, complex aromas of tobacco leaf, licorice, spice box, black currants and cherries. Medium to full-bodied, opulent and fleshy, this winner is ideal for drinking over the next 10-15 years.
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.