Tetra Red 2008
-
Wine
Enthusiast
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
-
Wine Enthusiast
Very delicious and luscious, but no mere fruit bomb. It has the tannic-acidic structure and dryness to make it refined, but explodes on the palate with blackberry, chocolate, cassis, anise and sweet, smoky cedar flavors that are deep and long. Tastes important and first rate.
Other Vintages
2012-
Robert
Parker
-
Wine
Enthusiast -
Robert
Parker
-
Wine
Enthusiast
-
Robert
Parker
-
Robert
Parker
This powerful, yet elegant effort was blended to perfection by winemaker Patrick Mahaney with the goal of highlighting the four Bordeaux varietals most loved by Bill – Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Petit Verdot
Though historically, Bill has focused his wine-making endeavors on single vineyard, single variety wines – his passion for Bordeaux, more specifically the wines of Chateaux Lafite, Mouton Rothschild, and Latour (a zeal born in his travels to France) had inspired the desire to create a Napa Valley Bordeaux style blend – a wine of truly exceptional quality and character – but one he would not craft until the conditions were perfect.
2006 brought just such a vintage and Tetra was born. The name "Tetra" (meaning four, four parts, having four) was chosen to signify the four "noble" Bordeaux varieties other than Malbec selected for the blend and the four vineyards from which the varieties were being sourced.
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.