Winemaker Notes
Dark garnet red to the core with no lightening at the rim. This has a wonderful saturation of color. On the nose there is a dusty graphite quality, crushed blackberries, mulled spices and sweet oak. On the palate the entry is simply seamless. The mid palate is full and rich and coats the palate from side to side.Roasted meats, spices- cloves and spearmint trail off to a long and supple finish that shows no trace of bitterness or angularity but is loaded with sweetness and silk. Seamless is probably the word that would best be used to describe this wine.A great example of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
The Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend is from Howell Mountain. The Syrah is from the Hudson Vineyard, in Carneros. The wine is very fine, offering complex tiers of blackberries, black currants, cherries, raspberries, bacon, sweet Provençal herbs, spices and toasty oak. Very fine, with a sharp bite of acidity that calls for a good steak. Now and through 2014, at the very least.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
A blend of 73% Cabernet Sauvignon from the Cimarossa Vineyard on Howell Mountain, and the rest Syrah from the Hudson Vineyard in southern Napa, the tightly knit 2007 Tor Cuvee Susan possesses a deep, blue/purple color as well as notes of roasted meats, herbs, lavender, pepper, creme de cassis, and blackberries. Rich, full-bodied, structured, and slightly foreboding, it needs another year or two of bottle age, and should evolve for a decade or more.
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.