Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
This Bordeaux blend has a terrific structure, with a molten core of ripe, sweetly complex blackberries and black currants, but it's also a very tannic wine. The tannins are of the hard kind, tough and astringent, with a drying finish. The wine needs a year or two to mellow.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The dense ruby/purple-tinged 2007 Arise (75% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc, and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon) exhibits a mossy, forest floor, Burgundian-like component, medium to full body, outstanding balance, purity, and texture, and some tannin that needs to be resolved. Again, 2-3 years of cellaring is recommended, but this beauty should age for two decades.
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Wine Spectator
Concentrated black currant and espresso aromas open to sleek yet complex blackberry, cedar and sage flavors that slowly build power and tannins on the finish. Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon. Drink now through 2014. 772 cases made.
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.