Winemaker Notes
Blend: 78% Cabernet Sauvignon, 13% Merlot, 7% Cabernet Franc, 2% Petit Verdot
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The estate’s Cabernet Sauvignon dominated release is the 2014 La Joie. It’s an incredible wine based on 78% Cabernet Sauvignon, 13% Merlot, 7% Cabernet Franc and the balance Petit Verdot. Reminding me of a top vintage of Ducru-Beaucaillou (the 2010?) with its classic Cabernet character, it offers thrilling notes of crème de cassis, exotic flowers, liquid rock-like minerality, and graphite and lead pencil nuances. Deep, concentrated, and backward, it has perfect balance, good acidity, and an undeniable Bordeaux-like weight and texture. Nowhere near primetime, it needs 5-7 years of cellaring and is going to keep for three decades.
Rating: 97+ -
Decanter
A Cabernet-dominated blend, La Joie reveals a classic bouquet of crushed cassis, wild plum, pencil shavings, wood smoke and a subtle framing of toasty oak. On the palate the wine is powerful, framed by firm but fine tannins and underpinned by a tensile line of acidity. It's the most structured and powerful of the Vérité wines, sapid and serious.
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James Suckling
Aromas of lead pencil, graphite and hot slate. Blackcurrants, too. Full-bodied, very tight and tannic. Linear and driven on the finish. Very fresh and energized. Racy and focused. Primarily cabernet sauvignon. Needs three to four years to come around completely. Try in 2021.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Deep ruby-garnet, the 2014 La Joie is alluringly tertiary on the nose with tones of iodine and truffle, old cigars, dried tobacco and blackcurrant. The medium-bodied palate is velvety and seamless, and the wine is showing a structural harmony and ideal balance of fruit and umami character. It's drinking beautifully!
One of the world’s most classic and popular styles of red wine, Bordeaux-inspired blends have spread from their homeland in France to nearly every corner of the New World. Typically based on either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, the best of these are densely hued, fragrant, full of fruit and boast a structure that begs for cellar time. Somm Secret—Blends from Bordeaux are generally earthier compared to those from the New World, which tend to be fruit-dominant.
Home to a diverse array of smaller AVAs with varied microclimates and soil types, Sonoma County has something for every wine lover. Physically twice as large as Napa Valley, the region only produces about half the amount of wine but boasts both tremendous quality and variety. With its laid-back atmosphere and down-to-earth attitude, the wineries of Sonoma are appreciated by wine tourists for their friendliness and approachability. The entire county intends to become a 100% sustainable winegrowing region by 2019.
Sonoma County wines are produced with carefully selected grape varieties to reflect the best attributes of their sites—Dry Creek Valley’s consistent sunshine is ideal for Zinfandel, while the warm Alexander Valley is responsible for rich, voluptuous red wines like Cabernet Sauvignon. Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are important throughout the county, most notably in the cooler AVAs of Russian River, Sonoma Coast and Carneros. Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot and Syrah have also found a firm footing here.