Winemaker Notes
Marietta’s husband, Armé, nurtured my father’s love for this majestic landscape we call home. Like an early morning horse ride through chaparral, this Cabernet kicks up waves of floral, mint, and dusty sage on the nose. Elevated, clear, and refreshing, this wine startles and intrigues. Across the palate a broad flood of grippy tannins is eroded by a core of velvet. Fresh and rounded, big yet steely, with hints of Kalamata olive under the primary note of blueberry, this wine has incredible focus with settled length.
Blend: 86% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Merlot, 4% Malbec, 2% Petit Verdot
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
The 2022 Armé is another gorgeous wine in this range from Marietta. Bold and racy in the glass, with generous forward fruit, the 2022 is all charm. Succulent red cherry, spice, blood orange, cedar, sweet pipe tobacco and crushed leaves all meld together. This mid-weight, flavorful Cabernet Sauvignon delivers the goods, big time. Dollops of Merlot, Malbec and Petit Verdot round out the blend.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The full-bodied 2022 Cabernet Sauvignon Arme is named for an earlier generation family member married to the namesake Marietta, Armé, whose colorful past included time in prison during Prohibition. It adds 4% Merlot, 2% Malbec, and 2% Petit Verdot for rounding and complexity. Exuberant red fruit is seasoned in a hint of baking spice, sage, and dried herb, with wraparound tannins and a finishing touch of black olive.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2022 Armé Cabernet Sauvignon, blended with 4% Merlot, 2% Malbec and 2% Petit Verdot, has pleasantly herbal scents of blackcurrant, black plum, grilled peppers and hints of violet. The full-bodied palate balances concentrated, perfumed fruit with clay-textured tannins and juicy acidity, and it has a long, graphite-laced finish.
Starting with only a handful of purchased grapes in 1978, Marietta Cellars has been a standout winery in Sonoma and Mendocino since the very beginning. Founded by Chris Bilbro, a Sonoma County native with winemaking roots dating back three generations, Marietta rose to prominence with its revolutionary Old Vine Red, a California red blend that essentially created the category. The winery has slowly expanded its estate holdings over the past thirty years, evolving into a beacon for high quality, balanced Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel, and Rhône variety blends. Now fully estate-based and organically farmed, Marietta has vineyards spanning 310 acres in the Alexander Valley, McDowell Valley, and Yorkville Highlands. Notable among their heritage plantings are California’s oldest Syrah blocks, planted in the late 1800s.
Scot Bilbro, Chris’s son, has brought Marietta into its next, incredibly exciting phase. After graduating from UC Davis with a degree in Viticulture and Enology in 2007, Scot joined the winery full-time, assuming the role of winemaker in 2012. Steeped in the history of the California wine country and the traditions established by his father, Scot combines his creativity and technical background in guiding the winery’s vision of viticulture and winemaking. Today, the fusion of traditional values and style with modern precision have culminated in the most highly regarded wines of Marietta’s four decade history.
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.
Reaching up California's coastline and into its valleys north of San Francisco, the North Coast AVA includes six counties: Marin, Solano, Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino and Lake. While Napa and Sonoma enjoy most of the glory, the rest produce no shortage of quality wines in an intriguing and diverse range of styles.
Climbing up the state's rugged coastline, the chilly Marin County, just above the City and most of Sonoma County, as well as Mendocino County on the far north end of the North Coast successfully grow cool-climate varieties like Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and in some spots, Riesling. Inland Lake County, on the other hand, is considerably warmer, and Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel and Sauvignon Blanc produce some impressive wines with affordable price tags.