Winemaker Notes
Blend: 82% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Merlot, 6% Cabernet Franc, 2% Petit Verdot, 1% Malbec
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Big, bold and expressive, featuring ripe, juicy plum and wild berry flavors, with touches of spice and cedar. Impressively supple, with a finish gripped by graceful and refined tannins. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Malbec. Drink now through 2023. 2,600 cases made.
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Wine Enthusiast
Good ruby-red. Much more vibrant on the nose than the merlot, offering scents of blackberry, flowers, graphite and licorice. Dense but juicy, conveying lovely intensity without weight. A bit youthfully aggressive today but boasts sound acidity and good salty extract. Still a tad tight and dry on the back end, but finishes with sneaky rising length.
Rating: 91(+?)?
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.