Winemaker Notes
Blend: 60% Cabernet Franc, 22% Merlot, 18% Cabernet Sauvignon
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Quite delicious, a modern-style wine with soft richness, with enough tannin-acid balance to counterpoise the enormously ripe blackberry, cherry, cassis, chocolate, Kahlúa and new oaky, cedar-spice flavors. Probably not an ager.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Displaying even more style and elegance, the 2004 Chesler exhibits a deeper ruby/purple color along with opulent, full-bodied flavors of creme de cassis, sweet cherries, licorice, and spice box. It is a broad, savory, rich, full-bodied red that retains the hallmark elegance and purity for which Mia Klein’s winemaking is known. It should drink well for 10-15 years.
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Wine Spectator
Smooth, elegant and intense. Fragrant currant and herb notes are ripe and juicy, with cola, tea, cedar, tobacco and spice accents and a long, lingering finish. Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon.
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.