Winemaker Notes
Flowers! The cool ripening season yielded classic Cabernet Franc floral perfume. Varietal pencil-lead and dried herbs complement subtle blueberry and plum fruit. Lifting slate minerality and earthy notes add complexity, and mouthwatering natural acidity and velvety tannins provide the structure for approachability and longevity. The finish goes on and on
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
Sunbasket is on St. Helena’s western benchlands, just north of Cathy Corison’s winery. She purchased the vineyard in 2014, most of it planted to cabernet sauvignon, with three short rows of franc that she bottles as Helios. If you enjoy silken elegance in your cabernet, you owe it to yourself to find a bottle of this wine. It offers the kind of sunny generosity that Napa Valley so easily gives; here, that effusive cornucopia of flavor is grounded in earthy detail, focused so it reads as light rather than weight. This wine’s sense of ease with its layers of complexity suggests it will age and develop for a decade or more.
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James Suckling
Wonderful red fruit with strawberry and rose-petal highlights. Turns to black fruit. Medium body. The fruit is pure and succulent in this wine. Citrusy acidity gives it character and energy.
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Wine Enthusiast
This is a stunning wine from a benchland site, so true to the variety in its violet perfume and underlying power. Tobacco, cedar and dried herb lead to a midpalate of fresh, focused cherry, berry and cassis, with tension and tautly wrapped tannin providing structure and ageabililty.
Cellar Selection
Cabernet Franc, a proud parent of Cabernet Sauvignon, is the subtler and more delicate of the Cabernets. Today Cabernet Franc produces outstanding single varietal wines across the wine-producing world. Somm Secret—One of California's best-kept secrets is the Happy Canyon appellation of Santa Barbara. Here Cabernet Franc shines as a single varietal wine or in blends, expressing sumptuous fruit, savory aromas and polished tannins.
St. Helena is in the heart of the Napa Valley, nestled between Calistoga to the north and Rutherford on its southern border. On its western side, the Mayacamas Mountains guard it from the cooling effects of the Pacific Ocean; to its east stand the Vaca Mountains. In conjunction, these mountain ranges serve to lock in summer daytime heat. But in the evening, cool air from the San Pablo Bay funnels up through the valley, creating very chilly nights. It isn’t uncommon for temperatures to drop 50 degrees, a shift that promotes a balance of sugar ripeness and acidity in wine grapes.
St. Helena contains a plethora of different soil types in a small area, which have been enhanced over centuries by rain runoff from both mountain ranges. Its vineyards cover a variety of terrain, spreading across the bucolic valley floor and its benchlands.
These ideal topographic and climatic growing conditions easily caught the attention of early winemaking pioneers. In fact, St. Helena is the birthplace of Napa Valley’s commercial wine industry. Dr. Crane founded his cellar in 1859, David Fulton in 1860 and Charles Krug in 1861.
Today there are no less than 400 separate vineyards planted within the 12,000 acres that make up the St. Helena appellation.
Revered most for its red wines based on Bordeaux varieties, namely Cabernet Sauvignon, the St. Helena appellation is also a source of superior Syrah, Zinfandel and Sauvignon blanc.