2007 and 2006 from Lokoya

In 1994 Jess Jackson created the exclusive label Lokoya, named after a word Indians who lived up in the Mayacamas ranges used. The idea was to craft a range of great cabernets from different appellations within the Napa Valley. In that mission, the team Jess, his winemakers and wine growers were successful, and for many years I have looked (and tasted) at the Lokoya wines as some of the finest and most impressive efforts in Napa Valley.
The Lokoya winery doesn't own any vineyards, all grapes are sourced from the very best vineyards, lots and even rows that Jess Jackson has purchased in Napa Valley. As for Pierre Seillan at Verité in Sonoma, the winemaker at Lokoya, Chris Carpenter, gets to chose grapes first of all winemakers, hence the high quality of each vintage.

There are now four different bottling of Lokoya, one from each of the prestigious mountain appellations in Napa Valley, on the western side Diamond Mountain and Spring Mountain in the north and Mount Veeder (the best blocks in the great Veeder Peak Vineyard) in the south, and on the eastern side on from Howell Mountain (predominately the Keyes Vineyard). 
All four wines are crafted in the same way, one hundred percent Cabernet Sauvignon (24-36 hectoliter per hectare), fermented with its own yeast in small open top fermenters of steel after four to five days of cold soak. The wine is matured in new French oak barrels for 18-22 months depending on each wine and the vintage, and there’s no fining or filtration before bottling.
Production is small, not more than 2 000 cases per year in total in a good vintage. The wines are only sold through mailing list and at the Cardinale Winery in Oakville, where the wines are made.
The sad thing is that prices took a giant leap up by the 2007 vintage, to 400 dollar per bottle. In one way I understand it – quality is outstanding, all four wines are among the very finest produced in their respective appellation – and production is smaller than the demand for the wines. I guess we have to accept the rising prices, there are now more and more wines getting closer to the magic 500 dollar limit, where (so far) only Harlan Estate and even more Screaming Eagle have touched or surpassed.

Vintage  2007

2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Diamond Mountain / 95-96 p
Of all wines from Lokoya, this is always the most approachable as young. It offers a quite open, intense and fruit driven nose with lovely notes of cherries, maraschino, cassis and almonds, as well as a slight touch of the oak vanilla. If the other bottling of Lokoya is firm and tannic at this young stage, this one is more polished, as if the tannins were almost totally absorbed by the medium to full bodied and rich taste. There are also fine notes of mineral, almost towards a slight saltiness, and the acidity also help to give freshness to the taste. The wine was decanted a good hour before I tasted it, which was a good thing as the taste still is a bit closed, especially in the finish.
Drink it 2011-2027

2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Spring Mountain / 96-97 p

Compared to the Diamond Mountain, the Spring Mountain bottling offers a sweeter and more intense flavor of cassis, but there’s also more aromas of stony minerality and rocks, which (at least for me) gives the wine a slightly more interesting complexity. In that sense, it’s also more distinct. On the palate, it tastes a bit younger due to the deeper fruit, higher density and more marked tannic structure. Again, the oak is extremely well absorbed by the fruit – the winemaking skill of Chris Carpenter is well worth mention, there’s 100 percent new French oak used also in this wine. The aftertaste is fine, but a bit closed at this young stage. A couple of years of cellaring are needed to see the full potential. 
Drink it 2013-2032

2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain / 98 p

Howell Mountain at its best – this is a manifest in mountain grown fruit. The color is dark purple, rather opaque to be honest, and even though the wine is very young and in no way offers the full range of flavors it will do in the coming years, the nose is just gorgeous in its full power, dark ripe but yet young fruit – mostly dark cherries and cassis, but there are also the typical fragrance of crushed rocks (I just love that) to reveal its origin – the poor volcanic soils of Howell Mountain. The taste is rich, packed with dark ripe fruit, yet so closed and restrained due to its marked tannic and mineral structure. Having had several vintages of the Howell Mountain from Lokoya over the past ten years, I know time will tell you another story than this tough one. Be patient, keep it a few more years, decant it at least one hour before you drink it, and enjoy it with a rich dish to soften the tannins even more. Already today the aftertaste lingers for a minute – just imagine what it will do in some years from now when the tannins will soften. This is the finest vintage of the Howell Mountain from Lokoya I have tasted!
Drink it 2014-2032

2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Mount Veeder / 98-99 p

This wine is normally the most concentrated and well structured of them all, and so it is also in this vintage. Color is as dark and opaque as in the precious wines, but the nose is a bit more dense and concentrated, however more intense and aromatic. I find sweet cassis as well as some lighter red fragrances, walnuts, a touch of the oak vanilla (but no toasted aromas), the same fine stoniness and minerality as in the Howell Mountain bottling, and it’s just impressive how concentrated this wine is without being too much or even sweetish. On the palate, it’s huge, full bodied and concentrated with a dense and ripe but in no way sweet fruit, and in although it’s young and firm, the aftertaste lingers for more than a minute! Add the salty mineral saltiness to all that, and you’ll understand how complex this great wine is. I’d give it a couple of more years more to polish the tannins a bit more, and it is recommended to decant it at least an hour prior to serving it.
Drink it 2014-2032

Vintage  2006

2006 Cabernet Sauvignon Diamond Mountain / 95 p

After one hour in the decanter, the perfumes were still very intense, rich and almost sweetish with notes of ink, vanilla and toffee, but overall dark, ripe and absolutely pure berry fruit. During the tasting, the wine evolved slowly, and even one day later, it showed just beautiful in the opened bottle. As always, this is the most elegant and ready to drink bottling from Lokoya, although there is – as most of the time from mountain vineyards – a great structure of tannins and the lovely and almost salty minerality I enjoy so much. On the palate, it’s rich and concentrated but not at all sweet or plump. Instead it’s delicious, very elegant and a bit closed although there’s enough body and fruit to give a silky texture. The oak is pretty well integrated, just a dash of vanilla and some tannins shows on the palate. It’s a very fine wine, still young, but very enjoyable already today – especially after several hours of decanting.
Drink it 2012-2026

2006 Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain / 96-97 p

One hundred percent of Cabernet Sauvignon from the Keyes Vineyard on Howell Mountain, and in the hands of winemaker Chris Carpenter, those grapes turned out to be just fantastic in the bottle. This is dark, well, actually it’s opaque, and youthful in its ink purple color. As expected the concentrated dark fruit is ripe but not sweet, since it’s balanced with loads of tannins and stony minerality – oh, yes, the Howell Mountain volcanic soil comes with the bottle. Surprisingly it’s not rustic or harsh at all, on the contrary I wrote “delicious” in my tasting notes, that’s because the intensity of the slightly sweetish, cherry like ripe and very delicious fruit. This dark fruit is joined by notes of graphite, an almost granite like dustiness, but to my surprise very little oak. Almost a third of the wine was left in the bottle until the day after, and when tasted, it was absolutely stunning. Even day two after the tasting, the wine held together in a way that was amazing. To me, that’s the best sign of a wine that will evolve slowly over many years, into something even more fantastic. A recommendation though, is to decant this wine at least 2-3 hours before serving it.
Drink it 2014-2030

2006 Cabernet Sauvignon Mount Veeder / 96-98 p

Normally the most impressive bottling from Lokoya is the one from Mount Veeder, and in this vintage there’s no change from that “rule”. When I poured it, it was a bit closed, still almost opaque and densely concentration, but I felt it didn’t show all its glory and power. Therefore I let the wine sit in the decanter for almost two hours before I started to taste and judge the wine properly. Even if there was a slight spiciness from the oak, it was extremely well integrated in the dense fruit, a detail that reveals the skill of the winemaker. Of the three 2006s of Lokoya, this is the most concentrated, but also the most impressive – not for its power, but for its overall fantastic balance. The fruit flavors are best described as cassis (with just a hint of aromatic greenness) and sour dark cherries, especially after several hours in the decanter. For sure there’s a lot of concentration here, still the minerality breaks through the fruit and adds a great complexity. Then there’s also a very fine tuned of chocolate (from the oak), but I wouldn’t call it oaky. As for the other Lokoya wines, I kept the bottle for one, and even two days, just to see how well it kept. Again, that’s a very good sign!
Drink it 2014-2030

More 2007 cabernets from Nickel & Nickel

Earlier this spring I tasted a quartet of 2007s from Nickel & Nickel (the old red barn above), and when I visited the estate some weeks ago, I retasted a few of them and four more. It seems like the 2007 vintage suited Nickel & Nickel very well, and their ambition to show the diversity of Napa Valley shows clearly when one lines up the wines from various vineyard the samt vintage.


2007 Cabernet Sauvignon CC Ranch / 91 p
The CC Ranch sits on a gentle rolling knoll next to Silverado Trail and Oakville Crossroads, not far away from the Frog’s Leap Winery. Of the 46.50 hectares, Nickel & Nickel farms 6.10 hectares, all planted to Cabernet Sauvignon in a weathered gravelly soil. The resulting wine is elegant with a bit more reddish fruitiness with nuances towards sweet cherries, but also darker notes like black currants. At this young stage, there’s also a slightly sweetish vanilla note from the oak, and a roasted touch as well. On the palate, it’s the overall balance that’s impressive, tannins are fine and well integrated in the quite intense fruit forward body, and compared to most of the Nickel & Nickel bottling, this one is most approachable already when young. However, it will develop with age, and it benefits from decanting.
Drink it 2012-2022

2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Regusci Vineyard / 90 p
I have had the wines from Regusci Estate on several occasion, without ever been impressed by them. They seem to be a bit rustic, earthy and sweetish at the same time, with little distinction. I guess it’s due to their winemaking – their vineyards shouldn’t be too bad, it’s close to well known wineries such as Shafer Vineyards and Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars – who makes some very fine wines. Also, the Regusci vineyard team also farms for other wineries, among them the Darioush further south on Silverado Trail, so I guess they are well respected.
This was the first time I tasted the Regusci bottling from Nickel & Nickel, and I felt some relations to my impressions of the estate bottling, yet so much better. However, it doesn’t have the same purity and aromatics as the rest of the line up from Nickel & Nickel, although the equally red and black fruit is quite fresh, but with some air, a lovely note of raspberries was revealed. On the palate, it’s quite silky, fresh and elegant, with fine tannins, some cedar notes and earthy qualities, and although it’s a bit lighter than the rest of the wines, it lingers for a while. It quite good, absolutely drinkable, but I don’t think it will evolve as good as the other wines in the lineup.
Drink it 2011-2021

2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Vogt Vineyard / 93 p
If you like firm, classic wines with serious structure, this is it! Over the years, I have always been a fan of the selection from Vogt Vineyard, a 5.65 hectare vineyard at 480-550 meters above sea level on top of Howell Mountain. In the poor, well drained and stony volcanic soil, the vines suffers and gives only low yields of small bunches with small, thick skinned grapes, which produces a dark wine with huge structure and intense fruit flavors. Of all wines, this is the wine that needs more aeration, at least 30 minutes in the decanter is recommended.
The nose is intense, deeply concentrated, yet a bit shy – it offers just the most elegant of its dense black fruit qualities, and you can tell they are born in a poor soil – there’s a super complex aroma of something reminiscent of gravelly and volcanic dust. I love that part of it. On the palate, you’ll get the first sweet kiss of the immensely concentrated fruit, but there’s no real sweetness whatsoever – it’s just an impression due to the fact the grapes were ripe, small and full of flavors when harvested. A second later, the tannins and lively minerality takes over, and that’s what together with the fruit aromas lingers for a minute or so.
Even though it’s not charming at all, I find this style very appealing. Give the wine some more years, and it will taste more elegant, as the tannins slowly start to polymerize and soften.
Drink it 2014-2025
2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Witz End Vineyard / 92-93 p
Since the owners of the vineyard have started to make their own wine, this was the last vintage from Nickel & Nickel of this wine. Sadly, I have to say – this Rutherford wine is a classic styled wine, dark fruit scented with notes of blackberries, cassis, complex nuances of cedar tree, medium bodied with a very fine tannic structure, some mineral notes, a good towards lively acidity and a very complex, long and elegant aftertaste. It’s still young and a bit closed, but I noticed that it opened up in a very positive way during the tasting, to show a seductive note of wild raspberries to complement the darker berries first noted. As in all wines from Nickel & Nickel, the oak is very well integrated, and even though the wine is still very young, tannins are firm but perfectly ripe, therefore in full balance. It’s in all aspects a textbook Napa Valley wine, that show just how well concentration, finesse and terroir makes a good match here in the valley.
The vineyard itself is 2.25 hectares, located on a gentle slope with well drained gravelly clay soil in the southwestern end of Rutherford. Dirk Hampson told me once the grapes from this vineyard are very small, but with a great intense. Given the fact the vines were planted in 2001, it’s an impressive wine!
Drink it 2012-2027

Two 2006 Cabernets from Notre Vin

The duo behind the higly recommended label Alienor, French winemaker Denis Malbec and his Swedish wife Maj-Britt Malbec, also makes wine under the label Notre Vin (“our wine”). They don’t own any vineyards, instead they purchase all grapes for their wines.
The French heritage is a great asset here, and although the wines are truly American, the concentration and alcohol level is moderate, which is very much appreciated. Except for the Pinot Noir from Sonoma Coast, which I find to be a bit unfocused and lacking true intensity, I like the wines of Notre Vin more and more. They are fashioned in a very intelligent way and are very promising, the sad thing is that prices are too high.
 

2006 Cabernet Sauvignon Cuvée l’Etrier / 90-91 p

This is a cuvée of approximately 85 percent Cabernet Sauvignon and the rest Merlot and just a few percent Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc. Grapes are sourced from the La Herradura Vineyard in Conn Valley (just opposite of Anderson Conn Valley) at the foot of Howell Mountain. After three weeks of fermentation and maceration, the wine spent 18 months in new French oak and it was bottled without being fined or filtered. It’s still dark with a youthful purple color, a young and very intense nose driven by primaty fruit aromas, but in a very elegant way that although typical for its origin also offers a French touch. On the palate, the fruit is much sweeter with loads of cassis and blackberries, but there’s a very good acidity and fine still young tannins to hold the sweet flavors back. There’s a fine but not marked mineral structure to make the wine serious, and even though I find the taste very pleasant, it doesn’t have the vibrant enegery I look for, at least at the moment. It lacks a bit of middle palate and the slightly greenish oak bitterness in the aftertaste needs to integrate a bit more. However, I don’t worry too much – time will make justice to that. Drinking it today or within a few years from now, I’d serve it to braised meet, steaks or venison and using a creamy texture in the dish, both oak and tannins will be balanced in a perfect way.
Drink it 2013-2021.

2006 Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon / 92 p

In this case, the Cabernet Sauvignon proportion is higher (93 percent to be exact), and the rest is small amounts each of Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. All grapes are sourced from the Hughes Vineyard at over 500 meters elevation on the western side of Howell Mountain. Vinification would the same as for the wine above, and it was kept in new French oak barrels for 24 months. Again alcohol level is moderate, 13.8 percent. It offers a more elegant and although young more complex nose, where a stony minerality adds an interesting energy and also makes the taste more serious and structured. The acidity is quite fresh, lively and good, and evne though the fruit is lush, a bit sweetish and intense, the overall impression is that the wine is young and tight, but promising. The oakiness is tasted more in the finish of the aftertaste than in the actual taste, so oak integration is good. I’d like to keep this some more years for more complexity to evolve and for the rougher details to be polished. Then, I’m sure it will taste really good!
Drink it 2013-2021.

2006 Lucia Abreu Vineyard from Aubert Wines

Mark Aubert was born in Napa Valley, so working with wine came natural for him. After working in the cellars at Rutherford Hill Vineyards and Monticello Cellars in the 1980s, he met Helen Turley and her husband John Wetlaufer in 1990, the same year they started their own label Marcassin. At the time Helen was the winemaker at Peter Michael Winery in Knights Valley, and she offered Mark Aubert to work with her as assistant winemaker there. Of course he took the job. Later on, when Helen Turley left, Mark Aubert became the head winemaker. He stayed at Peter Michael Winery until 2000, when he made his first wines (of Chardonnay) under his own label Aubert Wines. Mark continued to make wines for other wineries over a number of years, among them Colgin Cellars up on Pritchard Hill where he was the winemaker from 1999 (again, he took over after Helen Turley) until 2007.

His own wines were always made at the custom crush facility at Laird Family Vineyards in Oak Knoll. But in 2010, Teresa and Mark Aubert bought a small winery next to Silverado Trail in Calistoga, and production has now moved there.
“It’s great, for eleven years we have dreamed of having a winery of our own, and to give a home for our wines”, Mark says.
The total production is now around 2 500 cases per year, of which the Chardonnay Ritchie’s Vineyard counts for approximately a third.

2006 Lucia Abreu Vineyard Howell Mountain Red Wine / 90-92 p
This second vintage of this wine is a blend of approximately 50 percent Merlot, 30 percent Cabernet Sauvignon and 20 percent Cabernet Franc, all grapes from the Lucia Abreu Vineyard up in Howell Mountain (adjacent to the famous La Jota Ranch) which is owned and planted by the well known viticulturist David Abreu.
After almost 40 days of maceration, the wine is transferred into new French oak barrels from coopers Taransaud and Sylvain, to undergo malolactic fermentation and 18 months of ageing. Mark Aubert is known for making big and ripe wines, and there’s no change from that philosophy here – the wine boasts of super ripe, intense, sweet and lush fruit and an alcohol level of 15.8 percent. Is it too much? Well, many wine drinkers would say so, and I may agree with them, at least when the alcohol overwelms the fruit and burns. However, this wine it’s quite delicious, at least if serving it to a rich dish. At this stage, it's a bit closed, much due to the high proportion of firm tannins. There’s also a slight greenish bitterness (it taste like it comes from the oak), it doesn’t show too much of a mid palate and the oak is a bit to upfront. Since it was the first time I tasted this wine, and I had high hopes for it – one should have, it’s a David Abreu and Mark Aubert wines – I was at first a bit disappointed. I wanted it to give me more pleasure.
So, I left it in the decanter for almost four hours, and by then it had turned into something much more elegant and complex, but still without being so great I wished for. The final verdict at this young stage is that it is a good to very good wine, but taking into consideration where it’s from, who grows the grapes and who makes the wine, I ask for a little bit more than this. However, I look forward to taste future vintages, since I suspect things will be better over time.
Drink it 2012-2018.