Winemaker Notes
Blend: 95% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Petit Verdot
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This is shows wonderful aromas of tar, asphalt, wet earth and pure cherries. Full-bodied, yet soft and velvety with a fine dusty texture to the finish. Fresh and austere. Dignified. This has no cabernet franc in it this year. Normally there is 3% to 5%.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The second wine, the 2012 Napanook Proprietary Red Wine has a similar profile, but certainly comes across as less nuanced and slightly less concentrated and profound compared to its bigger sister. It is a blend of 95% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5% Petit Verdot. It does reflect the fact that the selection process has gotten so severe that the second wine at Dominus is really special in top vintages such as 2012 or 2013. The wine has low acidity, beautiful ripe black cherry and blackcurrant fruit, a hint of unsmoked cigar tobacco and a touch of roasted herbs in the finish. This is a beauty to drink over the next 15-20 years.
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Wine Enthusiast
A blend of 95% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5% Petit Verdot, this soft, approachable wine from a storied producer is meant to enjoy young and yet exudes plenty of complexity. Luscious aromas of graham cracker and blueberry jam belie a classically balanced measure of integrated tannins and dark chocolate.
Cellar Selection -
Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
The 2012 Napanook is a multi-dimensional wine as it brings all of the elements together; black fruit and sweet earth run throughout as the ends with a firm grip on the palate, this one is well-suited for grilled, well-marbled rib-eye of beef. Deep dark ruby color; black fruit and sweet earth in the nose, just a bit brooding at the moment, fine richness; medium bodied, firm and built on the palate; dry, good acidity, well balanced; earth and ripe fruit and joined nicely in the flavors; long finish, sweet tannins in the aftertaste. (Tasted: August 12, 2015, San Francisco, CA)
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Connoisseurs' Guide
By Dominus. Easily among the better, if not the best, Napanook bottlings that we can recall, the 2012 is a solid, sturdy, classically structured Cabernet that, although claimed by Dominus to be designed for drinking while young, strikes us as being anything but. It is deep, it is tough and it is unabashedly tannic, yet it is also deep in distinctly curranty fruit, and, if in no ways a lavish wine, it is a composed and complex one that will age famously. Five years seems the minimal wait, but it will grow and gain in interest for two or three times as long.
In the late 1960s, while attending the University of California at Davis, Christian Moueix fell in love with the Napa Valley and its wines. Son of Jean-Pierre Moueix, the famed wine merchant and producer from Libourne, France, Moueix returned home in 1970 to manage the family vineyards, including Chateaux Petrus, La Fleur-Petrus, Trotanoy in Pomerol and Magdelaine in Saint Emilion.
His love of Napa Valley lingered and in 1981, he discovered the historic Napanook vineyard, a 124-acre site west of Yountville that had been the source of fruit for some of the finest Napa Valley wines of the 1940s and 1950s. In 1982, Moueix entered into a partnership to develop the vineyard and, in 1995, became its sole owner. He chose the name 'Dominus' or 'Lord of the Estate' in Latin to underscore his longstanding commitment to stewardship of the land.
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.
One of Napa Valley's most historic sub-appellations, Yountville spreads through some of the valley's ideal cooler sites and enjoys success with a handful of different and significant grape varieties.
Syrah competes strongly with Cabernet Sauvignon here for optimal vineyard real estate followed by Pinot noir, Pinot blanc and Sauvignon blanc.
This sub-AVA of Napa Valley is rich in the history that makes Napa Valley what it is today, and not just for red wines. Moët & Chandon entered the California winemaking business via Yountville in 1973 with the establishment Domaine Chandon. Their goal has always been to produce top quality méthode champenoise sparkling wines.
Christian Moueix, originally responsible for managing Chateau Petrus and La Fleur-Petrus in Pomerol, arrived in Yountville in the early 1980s. He formed a partnership with Rohin Lail and Marcia Smith, inheritors of Napanook vineyard from their father John Daniel of Inglenook in Rutherford. In 1995 Moueix became sole owner of Napanook and chose the name Dominus, which today produces some of Napa’s highest scoring, age-worthy Bordeaux Blends.