2007 Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley This is a blend of Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon from Vineyard X managed by Andy Beckstoffer and Young-Inglewood Vineyard located just north of the Rubicon Estate on the valley floor. Vineyard X provides expressive, ripe fruit with an affinity for new oak aging. The Young-Inglewood fruit was fermented in two lots (a high-temperature fermentation for tannin and color extraction as well as a cool fermentation for good typicity) to provide complex blending elements for the finished wine. The Cabernet Sauvignon was aged 23 months in new French barrels for solid and refined oak tannins. The wine is a near classic Bordeaux-style blend of 84% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Yountville Malbec, 5% Napa Valley Petite Verdot, and 2% Oakville district Merlot. The wine is easily identifiable as a Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon due to the opaque ruby color and intensity nose of herbs, red (currant and plum), ripe black fruits (cassis, black olive, cherry), milk chocolate, oak and vanilla. On the palate, the flavors match the aromas with the addition of blackberry with a long baking spice and cocoa finish over fine-grained, “dusty” tannins. The wine is ready to drink now, improve with bottle age and can be age for 5 to 7 years. Leon recommends this with prime rib, beef with peppercorn sauce, hearty beef, lamb or bison stews. Bronze Medal - 2010 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition Price: $40 - retail, $32 - pre-release wine club Analysis: Recommended Recipe: |
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