Winemaker Notes
Blend: 73% Cabernet Sauvignon, 27% Merlot
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Wonderful, ripe, complex, intense fruit flavors, with lots of black cherry, plum, spice, cedar, anise and sage neatly woven together. Firms up on the finish, with well-integrated tannins. Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
There are 600 cases of the 1996 J. Daniel Cuvee, a blend of 73% Cabernet Sauvignon and 27% Merlot. It exhibits a dense ruby color with a purple hue. The classy nose of chocolate, cassis, black cherries, and toast is followed by a medium to full-bodied offering with outstanding ripeness, sweet tannin, and a layered, multi-dimensional personality. Delicious, and already revealing considerable complexity, it can be drunk now and over the next 15 years. Kudos to John and Robin Lail for the efforts they have produced to date. The talented young Frenchman, Philippe Melka, is their winemaker.
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.