Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
2005 Cabernet Sauvignon Vecina is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, aged in 100% new oak, like the other cuvées. It is from an 11-acre site directly southeast of the Bond Winery, close to Harlan Estate. This wine tends to be the closest to the Harlan Estate in quality, with notes of new saddle leather, blackberry, roasted coffee and a hint of chocolate – and again – graphite and subtle smoke. Opaque purple, but still incredibly youthful, the wine is spicy, intense, full-bodied and majestic. There is a deep tone to this massive Cabernet Sauvignon, which is set for another 25 or 30 years of life, although it certainly is accessible at present.
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Wine Enthusiast
The 2005 Vecina is also strutting its stuff. I can’t say it showed better than it did last year, but this wine comes close to perfection for my palate. Made in a Graves-like style, it exhibits scents of roasted herbs, espresso, scorched rocks, and liquid minerals seamlessly integrated into a full-bodied, dense wine offering a cascade of black cherries and black currants. Built for the long haul, this powerful 2005 is soft enough to be drunk early, but it will not hit its stride for at least a decade, and should age for three decades thereafter.
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Wine Spectator
Intense and racy wild berry and blackberry fruit is flashy, tight, pure, focused and beautifully defined, picking up a nice dusty berry edge, with hints of black licorice, and offering wonderful depth, richness and persistence. To be released spring 2009.
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.