Winemaker Notes
Uncompromising viticultural practices and meticulously detailed vinification rewarded us with a wine of great concentration and ripeness. The round supple tannin sin the 2005 Levy & McClellan are the result of the cool growing conditions and the extended ripening. As the wine develops, the expression of the site where it is grown continues to come to the forefront. Accentuated by the low yield in a year known for more generosity, combined with 26 months in barrel, the result is a profoundly concentrated, supple and full-bodied wine.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
A limited production of a very powerful and massive wine from two of California’s most famous winemaking gurus, Bob Levy and Martha McClellan, this wine remains primordial and backward, especially for a 2005. Loads of graphite notes interwoven with cassis, new saddle leather, blackberry and earth are impressive. It may sound unusual, but what came to mind is tasting some of the more recent vintages of Château Montrose in St.-Estèphe in Bordeaux. This wine still needs another 5-6 years of cellaring easily. This masculine, vigorous, bigger-than-life, full-throttle wine will evolve for another 25-30 years.
Rating: 95+
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.