$50/bottle under the original label
This muscular-yet-elegant Cabernet hails from the western hills of Sonoma Valley in the foothill alluvial's draining down off of the southern foot of Sonoma Mountain. The winemaker (and consulting winemaker for a variety of high-end Sonoma Valley wineries) told me he's too busy with his other clients to spend anytime selling his own wines so he's getting out of the game.
$50/bottle Sonoma Valley Cabernet Sauvignon doesn't sell itself you know.
This southern part of Sonoma Valley is relatively cool and, despite the 14.9% alc., this is an intriguing, unique cool-climate style. I know the November 2020 bottling seems early for a Cabernet but we felt the wine was ready (the 2019's are fabulous by the way).
Farmed at just one-cluster per shoot (yielding under two tons per acre), fermented in open-top redwood vats, and aged in 50% new French oak, its a steal at $16/bottle.
The nose is redolent with oak at this young stage, chock-full of tootsie roll notes from the MT+ barrels and savory, graphitic concentration. The once-vibrant black cherry/black raspberry fruit is subdued at this point (bottled just a couple months ago) but the lovely perfumed violet and red rock are on full display. On the palate, supple, elegant blackberry fruit is beautifully balanced with with firm acidity and chewy french oak tannin. The finish is long and lingering with chewy fruit echoing throughout. Rock solid and delicious now but there's a lot more complexity to come. Hold through to late Spring, early summer.
***Tasting Notes 8.19.21 - showing very nicely now with a good decant. I gave it a couple hours of air and it really began to sing with blueberry, pie crust and sage notes opening up into beautiful blackberry juice, red rock, seasoned oak and mint all well-delineated on the nose. Smooth on entry with gobs of red and black fruit and juicy tannins. Wonderfully rich with good length in the finish but clearly there is more to come in terms of complexity. There is plenty of oomph here for the cellar but this wine is drinking well now. Hell of a deal at $19/bottle!
100% Cabernet Sauvignon
50% new French oak
14.9% alc.
300 cases available
Bottled November 18th, 2020
