Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Also bottled the week before this tasting, the 2016 Soul of a Lion includes more Cabernet Sauvignon than the 2014 and 2015 and is 84% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Cabernet Franc and the rest Petit Verdot. It’s an incredible achievement and has sensational notes of crème de cassis, graphite, violets, and lead pencil shavings. Made in a pure California, pedal-to-the-metal style, with full body and loads of fruit, it stays balanced, has ultra-fine tannins, and a layered, seamless style that just glides over the palate. Don’t think Paso Robles can make world-class Cabernet Sauvignon? Try this wine.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 Soul Of A Lion is a blend of 84% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Cabernet Franc and 4% Petit Verdot aged 22 months in 100% new French oak. The nose offers pure, expressive, incredibly layered scents of espresso, cast iron, vanilla bean, cedar, cigar ash, black cherry jam, blackberry pie, fern, underbrush, exotic flowers and peppered meats. Medium to full-bodied, it bursts with flavor layers framed by wonderfully ripe, pixelated tannins and seamless freshness, finishing incredibly long and packed to the gills with flavor. This is heavenly.
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Wine Enthusiast
Aromas of coffee bean, charred meat, blackberry and toast show on the nose of this blend of 86% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Cabernet Franc and 4% Petit Verdot. There is compelling density to the palate, which offers flavors of espresso, cocoa, charred toast and blackberry.
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James Suckling
Super dark with a ton of bitter chocolate and cocoa powder, plus smoke and a hint of gunpowder. This has a great balance of full, powdery tannins and earthy power. Long, really complex finish. You could drink this now, but if you wait until at least 2021, it will give even more pleasure.
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Decanter
Meaty, savoury flavours with thyme and rosemary. Opulent and mouth-filling with sweet oak caramel. Great concentration and long length. Drinking Window 2020 - 2040
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Connoisseurs' Guide
10% Cabernet Franc; 4% Petit Verdot. Dense and extracted with an abundance of very ripe fruit that inclines more to black cherries than currants and decked out with a broad sweep of sweet oak, this slightly supple, full-bodied working sports a fine spine of integral tannin that, at the moment, imparts an edge of dryness to its lingering, ever so slightly hot finish. Unquestionably rich, but still very young and wanting time to smooth and for its parts to fully knit, it is sure to reward a stay of some six to eight years in the cellar.
One of the world’s most classic and popular styles of red wine, Bordeaux-inspired blends have spread from their homeland in France to nearly every corner of the New World. Typically based on either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, the best of these are densely hued, fragrant, full of fruit and boast a structure that begs for cellar time. Somm Secret—Blends from Bordeaux are generally earthier compared to those from the New World, which tend to be fruit-dominant.
