Winemaker Notes
Audere (Latin)--To dare! To venture! Audere was born from premium hillside Napa Valley grapes. All of this mountain fruit comes from Atlas Peak, Howell Mountain, Pritchard Hill, & the Silverado foothills, and was barrel aged for 23 months in 90% new French & Hungarian oak. Unlike the 2013 Audere, which was predominantly Merlot based, this 2014 vintage is technically a Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon even though we classify it as a "red blend." This gives us the freedom every vintage to create the best possible blend after we put together our top tier flagship wines.
The label design is similar to last year’s vintage which played upon a gothic theme of the Hertelendy Family coat of arms used on our other labels, but with a twist. Pour yourself a glass, and then dim the lights to reveal the surprise...if you dare!
Blend: 84% Cabernet Sauvignon, 11% Petit Verdot, 5% Malbec
Professional Ratings
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The least expensive of these wines, with their baroque, neo-Gothic artwork on the label, is the 2014 Audère. A blend of 84% Cabernet Sauvignon, 11% Petit Verdot and 5% Malbec, it is a big, bold, exuberant, rich wine with lots of extract, some serious tannin, and a full-bodied mouthfeel with oodles of black fruits, licorice and charcoal. It is still tight and unyielding, but there’s loads of potential, with plenty of extract and richness. Give it another several years of bottle age, as it is certainly capable of lasting 10-15 years.
Undoubtedly proving its merit over and over, Napa Valley is a now a leading force in the world of prestigious red wine regions. Though Cabernet Sauvignon dominates Napa Valley, other red varieties certainly thrive here. Important but often overlooked include Merlot and other Bordeaux varieties well-regarded on their own as well as for their blending capacities. Very old vine Zinfandel represents an important historical stronghold for the region and Pinot noir is produced in the cooler southern parts, close to the San Pablo Bay.
Perfectly situated running north to south, the valley acts as a corridor, pulling cool, moist air up from the San Pablo Bay in the evenings during the hot days of the growing season, which leads to even and slow grape ripening. Furthermore the valley claims over 100 soil variations including layers of volcanic, gravel, sand and silt—a combination excellent for world-class red wine production.