Winemaker Notes
Blackberries, herbes de Provence, cinnamon, and baking spices offer a complex aromatic greeting in this wine. Focused and penetrating on the palate, a black cherry core augments the herbs and spices of the nose. The finish is intriguing and complex, intense, and lingering. The wine is even better decanted.
Professional Ratings
-
Wine & Spirits
Light, pretty and high-toned in its youth, this wine remains somewhat inaccessible behind it tannins, as black as an iron skillet. The mouthwatering minerality has a sensation of hard water, restricting the red and black fruit, turning silken as it continues to open with air.
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.