Description
“A lot of California wines turn everything up to 11,” the winemaker told us. “I prefer to under-extract. I want the wine to dance with you, seduce you, not clobber you over the head.”
We were near the top of the steep unnamed Vineyard, standing beside one of our favorite Cabernet maestros in Napa Valley. The man who helped fashion a mega-hit Cab blend that won Wine Spectator’s Wine of the Year Award (beating out landmark bottlings from Opus One and Robert Mondavi) is a walking Zen master of small-lot, single-vineyard winemaking—and he speaks with undeniable authority.
Earlier that day, when we tasted the wine, we suddenly understood why nearly every blue-chip Napa winemaker tries to get their hands on the vineyard’s fruit. Pure and clean on the palate, the wine is rich but almost Rhône-like, with a pepper-crusted, dark-fruit core; big, lush aromas; and soft, espresso-coated tannins.
Here on the eastern slopes of Napa, tucked away in a small, secluded valley, the wine’s source vineyard has yields that sometimes top out at a miniscule half-ton per acre. Planted to Bordeaux varieties, each block is individually farmed and produces tiny berries with thick skins and a low juice-to-pulp ratio, making for exquisitely concentrated Cabernet.
The winemaker’s original plan to release the bottle as a single-vineyard designate had gone up in smoke because the grower didn’t want him using the famous vineyard name. So our new friend now needed a seller, and we were more than happy to oblige. The result? A Napa Cab with an impeccable pedigree, available for you at a fraction of the price a wine of its quality would normally fetch.
