Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Hamel family’s most expensive wine is the 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon Pamelita Reserve, which is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon again aged for 30 months in 100% new French oak. It is sourced from their best plots in both the Hamel Family Ranch Vineyard and the Nuns Canyon Vineyard. This is a provocative, profound, great Sonoma Cabernet Sauvignon that rivals just bout anything produced in Napa. Dense purple/black in color, with notes of graphite, incense, charcoal, blackberry and cassis, the wine hits the palate with a thunderous impact of full-bodied richness but never gets heavy or cloying. The tannins are present but relatively integrated and sweet. This is broad, full, rich and built like a skyscraper. Drink it over the next 25+ years.
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.
Covering the western slopes of the Mayacamas Mountains, facing the city of Sonoma, Moon Mountain District is one of Sonoma’s newest sub-appellations. Here the well-drained, red volcanic and ash soils produce hauntingly intense red wines, mainly from Zinfandel and Cabernet Sauvignon and other Bordeaux varieties.