Winemaker Notes
Dark berries and black cherry aromatics lead to a dense core of cassis. Field ripe strawberries, crushed blackberries and brooding blue tones encapsulate powerful textural highlights. Fantastic density and weight, with an expanding midpalette that turns to purity and uplift in finishing.
Blend: 68% Cabernet Sauvignon,16% Merlot, ?14% Cabernet Franc, 2% Petit Verdot?
Professional Ratings
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Tasting Panel
Soft and luscious with elegant, tangy blackberry and cassis; smooth, rich, and deep with an exquisite velvety texture; an impressive, complex blend of all the Bordeaux varieties, save Malbec.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2015 High Dive Napa Valley Red Blend is impressive. TASTING NOTES: This wine is dramatic from the beginning to the end. It's bold aromas and flavors of black fruit, a medley of ripe berries, earth, and oak stays long and lasting on the palate. Pair with a thick ribeye and dollop of strong blue cheese. (Tasted: May 18, 2020, San Francisco, CA)
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Decanter
A lovely rich structure with smoky cassis, tobacco, spiced plum and chocolate notes. Velvety tannin, wonderfully balanced oak flavours and a lingering, smooth finish.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2015 Red Blend checks in as 68% Cabernet Sauvignon, 16% Merlot, 14% Cabernet Franc, and 2% Petit Verdot. It shows the ripe, powerful style of the vintage in its plum, ground herbs, licorice, mulling spices, and chocolaty aromas and flavors. These flow to a ripe, full-bodied wine that has solid palate presence. Drink it over the coming 7-8 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.