Professional Ratings

• 95 Tasting Panel
  Among the fuller and more forthrightly rich of the current lineup of Pinots from Davies, the 2018 Nobles Vineyard bottling is a well-ripened, fairly substantial working with plenty of fruity flesh on its ample structural bones. Despite being easy to taste at the moment, it deserves a rest of at least two or three years before being poured as a partner to the likes of a well-seasoned rack of lamb, and it has the right pieces in place to age effortlessly for a good half-dozen or more.
• 92 Wine Enthusiast

  With a sumptuously inviting nose of nutmeg, clove and dark chocolate, this rich wine is blended with 14% Malbec and 2% Merlot. Dusty texture gives in to a core of soft, supple tannins that melt on the palate, finishing with length and breadth.

• 92 Wine Spectator
  Nicely packed with plum, currant and blackberry purée flavors laced with black licorice and framed by a perfectly integrated alder note. Flash of sweet bay in the background, too.
• 91 Connoisseurs' Guide
  There may be more complex wines in this review, and there are certainly more intense wines as well, but not many of the bottlings tasted outpoint this tasty, open and inviting wine for sheer drinkability over the next three to five years. Its aromas are nicely fruited and tilt toward black currant and olives with a rich background of caramelly oak, and those attractions are repeated in the thoroughly enjoyable flavors. It will certainly age well for a half-decade and more, but it will show well now with steaks and chops.
• 90 Jeb Dunnuck
  The base appellation 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley checks in as 82% Cabernet Sauvignon, 16% Malbec, and the rest Petit Verdot. Solid mulberry and blackberry fruits as well as ample earthy tobacco and leather notes emerge from the glass, and it's medium-bodied, with a rounded, elegant texture and ripe, polished tannins. I don't think it's going to make old bones, but it should deliver the goods for at least 8-10 years.