Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Tasting Panel
From the 16.5 acre Biodynamic Grimm's Bluff vineyard, located in the warmest area of Snata Ynez Valley, winemaker Paul Lato and proprietor Rick Grimm have released their first vintage of Cabernet Sauvignon, and we're thrilled to have the opportunity to taste. The Contango Cab cuvee comes from special head-trained vines, and the wine is aged in 100% French oak barrels for 20 months. The nose offers restrained notes of earth and cookie dough, blueberry cream and raspberry jam. On the palate, tannins emerge as gritty and robust, yet the liquid core is graceful. It's an effortless wash of fudge and black currant that finishes with a graphite dryness, sweetened by cinnamon and basil.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Seeing slightly more new oak, the 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon Grimm's Bluff Contango is 99% Cabernet Sauvignon and 1% Petit Verdot aged in 70% new French oak. It's my favorite of the Cabernet releases and has terrific notes of black raspberries, blackcurrants, toasted bread, spice and vanilla bean. Full-bodied, layered and beautifully concentrated, with sweet tannin, drink it anytime over the coming 10-15 years.
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Wine Enthusiast
Named for an energy industry phrase meaning an upside-down market, this wine from Rick Grimm and winemaker Paul Lato shows black cherry pie and melted dark chocolate aromas. The palate is lush and soft but framed with rigid tannins that support its ripe blueberry, vanilla and crushed clove flavors. It's built for ageing.
A noble variety bestowed with both power and concentration, Cabernet Sauvignon enjoys success all over the globe, its best examples showing potential to age beautifully for decades. Cabernet Sauvignon flourishes in Bordeaux's Medoc where it is often blended with Merlot and smaller amounts of some combination of Cabernet Franc, Malbecand Petit Verdot. In the Napa Valley, ‘Cab’ is responsible for some of the world’s most prestigious, age-worthy and sought-after “cult” wines. Somm Secret—DNA profiling in 1997 revealed that Cabernet Sauvignon was born from a spontaneous crossing of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc in 17th century southwest France.
On the eastern end of the Santa Ynez Valley, the rolling hills of the tiny Happy Canyon AVA produce top quality reds from Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Syrah and whites from Sauvignon blanc. The region’s low-nutrient soil grows smaller vines and in turn, higher quality wine grapes.