Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A big and rich wine with lots of dark chocolate, blackberry and dark earth character. Full body, round tannins. Long and flavorful finish. Drink or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2012 Forte is a beautifully opulent style of wine, coming in a 14.9% alcohol. It has a dense ruby/purple color, loads of blackberry and blueberry fruit and a long concentrated finish. It's a beauty, even in the context of how epic 2013 has turned out to be. Drink it over the next 12-15 years.
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Wine Enthusiast
Malbec, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot are the building blocks of a grippy, chalky and bold red wine, strong in blueberry, blackberry and leather. Around those more concentrated layers are contrasting accents of cedar, dried herb and red currant.
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.