Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2017 Pellet Estate Henry's Reserve Red Wine is rewarding from start to finish. TASTING NOTES: This wine offers intense aromas and flavors of black fruit, oak, and licorice. Pair it with a well-seasoned, grilled ribeye. (Tasted: March 3, 2022, San Francisco, CA)
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Jeb Dunnuck
A step up in price, the 2017 Red Blend Henry's Reserve is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot that gives up a deep purple color as well as juicy blueberry and cassis fruits interwoven with lots of spice box, flowery incense, and lead pencil nuances. Medium to full-bodied, lively, focused, and elegant on the palate, it's another classic 2017 that will keep for 15 years or more. Both reds from this estate showed beautifully.
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.