Spring Mountain Vineyards 2007 Cabernet Sauvignons

 

Not only is Spring Mountain Vineyards one of the most beautiful wine estates in Napa Valley (and California), it’s also a very reliable source of high end but moderate priced wines. The more than 340 hectares large estate climbs from 120 meters of altitude at the foot of Spring Mountain, just next to the town of St Helena, up to 480 meters, and the total planted surface is 91 hectares, divided into 132 different vineyard blocks, some of them on steep, terraced slopes.

A handful wines are made here, a very good, refreshing wine of Sauvignon Blanc with a splash of Sémillon, a surprisingly good Pinot Noir (!), two wines of Syrah and two wines of Cabernet Sauvignon (predominately). It’s the cabernets that are the star of the show. They both offer just everything one can wish for in a mountainside wine. There is density, power, depth, structure, minerality, freshness, finesse and elegance, and, which I see as a great thing, longevity.

The estate itself is old, at least parts of it, but the greatness is of more recent time. It’s owned by Swiss business man Jacob Safra, who bought it bit by bit from 1992 and onwards. I liked the wines already in the late 1990s, but the breakthrough came with the new winemaker Jac Cole in 2003 (all though David Ramey made their 2001 and 2002 vintages), and since then a great deal of the vineyards has been replanted.

   The wines are made in a classic way, small stainless steel tank fermented with 15 days of skin contact, then transferred into French oak barrels to undergo malolactic fermentation and ageing. Just in time for the 2011 vintage, eight brand new Taransaud oak fermenters were installed in the cave, so I think we can see even more perfection in the wines in the vintages to come.

2007 Cabernet Sauvignon / 92-93 p

This is an absolutely pure and lovely expression of the terroir of Spring Mountain! The cuvée this year is 97 percent Cabernet Sauvignon and just three percent of Cabernet Franc, and it was raised in 50 percent new French oak barrel for nearly two years. Although very young, it’s already quite complex, the dark and deeply concentrated but yet so elegant nose is not all about fruit (dark cherries and black currants), there’s also lovely notes of cedar, lead, gravel and minerality. On the palate, it’s rich, or rather intense, with a good density without being full bodied or fruit driven. The tannins are marked, but not aggressive, and they are backed up by a good acidity and a vital minerality that tickle the tongue. The alcohol is well balanced, there’s just a slightly warm touch in the end of the finish. It many sense, this is a very classic wine that will turn into what’s normally is described as Bordeaux like, but with a richer fruit.

   I really enjoyed the 2005 vintage, but that’s a big and very tight one that still needs a lot of air before serving it. The 2007 vintage is a step up in elegance and complexity, so I prefer it. If opened young, you should decant it at least one hour before drinking it.

Drink it 2013-2027

2007 Elivette / 93-94 p

The Elivette is the finest and most intense selection here, it also priced higher, 125 dollar compared to 75 dollars for the regular cuvée. In this vintage, the cuvée of this top selection from Spring Mountain Vineyards consists of 84 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, 12 percent of Cabernet Franc and four percent of Petit Verdot. Compared to most reserve wines in Napa Valley, there are no differences in the vinification, it’s the same type of fermentation and ageing in oak, it’s just a pure vineyard lot and barrel selection. The wines is quite a bit more intense, the concentration is more obvious, which adds the sensation of being a more silky and less structured wine, which is not the case. It’s just more of the good stuff to balance and in some way also coat the tannins. I’d give this wine even more air if serving it today, but I’d rather keep it a few more years from now.
Drink it 2013-2027

2008 from Harlan Estate

The annual visit at Harlan Estate is of the highlights of the year. Since my first visit here over ten years ago, the vineyards have now become mature and produce wines of more gracefulness and depth than pure power and fruit intensity. Some of the lots, like the older one right below the winery (planted in the late 1980s), have been taken out to be replanted due to age and some kind of virus, I was told. A part from that, few things are really new here.
   Don Weaver is still the manager, Bob Levy is still making the wines and does it in the same way as always, Michel Rolland is still involved as a consultant for the blends, and the blend seems to be pretty much the same today as in the past vintages.
   Just a few things are different, 1) the vintages are not the same from year to year, 2) the knowledge of each parcel is deeper, and 3) the philosophy has for one reason changed a little bit.

“For sure we will never, by intention, make another 1997, even though that vintage was awarded with a perfect 100 point score by Robert Parker”, Don Weaver says.

And there we see the small change. Stylistically Harlan Estate will never again make another blockbuster wine like 1997 or the 2004, classic elegance, total balance and complexity are the key words.

“2004 was the last warm vintage we had, since then it seems like the climate has become a bit cooler, which suits us just fine”, he adds.

Although 2007 is one of the best vintages ever here, 2008 as well as 2010 and 2011 all shows great finesse. A preview of an almost complete final blend of 2010 is very promising, with at lively balance, great finesse and freshness, and a long finish with a lingering blueberry and cassis fruit, lively acidity and fine minerality. Production, however, was very small. Only 900 cases were made in 2011.

2008 Harlan Estate / 96-97 p

This is yet another great expression of the site, a true evidence of the great terroir of the hillside vineyards of Harlan Estate. Color is deep, but not dark or opaque, which indicates a smart and perfect extraction from the skins. The nose is rather elegant than concentrated, still intense with a absolutely pure dark berry fruit, cassis and blueberries are noted, ripe but not sweetish. The oak is perfectly well integrated and actually not detected on the nose, a part from a slight nuance of cedar tree, and there is also a fine and already today complex touch of graphite, which normally comes with some age (in this case it’s there because the fruit is so elegant), and with that typical note of walnuts I find so appealing.
   The freshness and elegance are also there on the palate, medium bodied and silky with very fine tannins, good acidity and great length, and overall it’s more classic and complex than powerful. It’s delicious to drink already today, especially if served the way I had it, decanted a good hour ahead and then served in a big Bordeaux Riedel glass. With that said, the greater complexity will not be there for a few more years, and I rather wait for that. The 2008 vintage has the potential to be a new classic from Harlan Estate, and a vintage that would suit the classic and French palate more than the typical American.
   “For us, the 2008 Harlan Estate is a charming wine, it’s all about freshness”, Don Weaver adds.
Drink it 2015-2033

1999 cabernets from Napa Valley

It's so interesting to talk about vintages. For me, a vintage can be great for various reasons, one of course because its wines are great considering their power and intensity and most likely their ability to age and develop a greater complexity, another reason because they are easy to drink and therefore great to pour at restaurants without further bottle ageing, and yet another because they are so highly rated (by Parker) so consumers can pour them to their friends and tell them what a great wine this is.

After working in the restaurant and wine business for three decades, the latter reason is unfortunately far too common. I just wish that consumers could depend on their own palates, rather than looking for 100 point wines. With that said, points are great references to understand the quality (or style!) of wine at the moment the taster tasted the wine.

The 1999 vintage in northern California was a bit unusual. After the cool El Niño vintage of 1998, the vines were programmed for another cool vintage, and so it was. Already in spring, 1999 was a cool year, and the flowering and fruit set was a bit later than average, followed by a slightly cooler growing season. Most wine growers I have talked to over the years (at least a couple of hundred of people), have told me they really liked 1999. "It was a winemakers vintage", I have been told. And I couldn't agree more. The praise in media didn't show.

For most Californians, the cooler vintages are not by definition the best ones, but for me as a, 1) sommelier and wine lover used to classic European wines, 2) a chef with the ambition to create great combinations with great food, and 3) a genuine lover of California and its wines, I need to find the perfect balance for my taste and purposes.

To me, 1999 is a much superior vintage than the highly acclaimed 1997, which was too warm to create perfectly balanced and elegant wines. In 1999, the wines came out in perfect balance, with a ripe and intense fruit in a style I call "neo-classic" (ripe but not sweet, intense but not overly powerful, elegant but not weak), with a fine acidity, a sense of place and minerality, and with alcohol levels I would describe as moderate and in balance. And, which I find to be a bonus, they seems to age with grace and now offers what I call a "Bordeaux like" complexity.

In a tasting with my wine club, I opened up a bunch of 1999s, and this is the result.

1999 Cabernet Sauvignon Kronos Vineyard / 91 p

Corison Winery
I've always loved the wines from Cathy Corison, they often have that kind of lovely elegance that seems to have been lost in Napa Valley in the hype of the cult wines of the 90s. Perhaps they lack som intensity when they are young, but the grace comes with age. This 1999 is a lovely example of that, even though it was a b it shy in the tasting I arranged. Twelve years old, it still offers primary fruit of good quality with a quite aromatic fragrance of cassis, but it also shows some mature nuances like lead pencil and cedar tree, and it's really deliscious. On the palate, it is elegant, the tannins have started to soften and the texture is almost velvet like. A good thing here, which several tasters indicated, is that alcohol (13.6 percent) is perfectly well integrated, and some tasters called the style "Pauillac like". I totally understand them! It's a deliscious wine.
   The wine is a pure Cabernet Sauvignon from vines planted in the early 1970s on the phylloxera resistent root stock St George (hence the age of the vines) in the 3.25 hectare Kronos Vineyard, right behind the winery off the Highway 29 in the heartland of Napa Valley.
Drink it 2012-2017

1999 Cabernet Sauvignon / 89-90 p

Jones Family Vineyards

The first vintage from Jones Family was 1995, then and still by famous winemaker Heidi Peterson-Barrett. I belive this vintage was made from 100 percent Cabernet Sauvignon from the 2.85 hectare parcell they planted in 1991 and 1993 at 180 to 240 meters altitude at the foot of Howell Mountain (it's in the St Helena appellation). Stainlees steel fermented and raised in new French oak barrels for 22 months, this is a serious wine that still offers some oaky flavors. Although the wine is rich with good concentration of dark berry fruit, it doesn't have that depth that comes with vine age, so it lacks a bit of the core I look for. I guess that's why I noted a slight bitterness in the finish. Still it is a good wine, especially with food (which will cover a bit of that hollowness), and I'd like to see it again within a few years. Just because I'm curious.  
   While most of the wines opened up with air, this wine lost a bit of its fruit and became even more bitter.
Drink it 2012-2015

Fay Vineyard

1999 Cabernet Sauvignon Fay / 92 p

Stag's Leap Wine Cellars
The legendary wine estate Stag's Leap Wine Cellars I a reliable source of fine wines that ages with beauty, and they tend to move towards fine Bordeaux's with age. This 1999 still offers a slightly sweetish fruit, quite aromatic and with fine cassis flavors. However, it is the first signs of maturity that impress me and makes me smile. I find notes of cedar, lead pencil and sous bois, as well as a whisper of coffee. On the palate, it is medium bodied with a vital och lively fruit, still with firm but not aggressive tannins and with a fine acidity to create a good balance. The 14.5 percent of alcohol is in good balance with the other components, and even though its higher than in most wines in this tasting, and the aftertaste is a bit dry (actually a bit closed), it doesn't stand out.
   The wines is good to drink today, but I would prefer to wait another year or so, to let the tannins soften a bit more and pave the way for a longer and more seductive aftertaste.
Drink it 2012-2019

1999 Cabernet Sauvignon John G Sullenger / 85 p

Nickel and Nickel
The first vintage from Nickel and Nickel, founded by the Nickel brothers who also owns Far Niente Winery, was 1998. I haven't taste any of the 1998s from them, but a few times wines from the much better 1999 vintage. Last time I was a bit disappointed, the wine I had in my glass had begun to fade away and it was also a bit oxidized. The grapes, exclusively Cabernet Sauvignon, comes from the almost 17 hectare John G Sullenger vineyard next to the winery in Oakville, and the wine was raised in French oak barrels, 65 percent new, and there's still a  touch of coffee from the barrels.

   My previous experiences of the 1999s from Nickel and Nickel stands, the wine does not deliver the energy, power and depths I expect. However there is a fine note of cassis and even a slight complexity, but overall it is mute and short. With that said, it should drink quite well with a meal, but don't expect greatness from it.
   I'd like to add, that I really enjoy the more recent vintages from Nickel and Nickel, to be honest I just love some of them (like the cabernets from Vogt Vineyard and Tench Vineyard).

Drink it 2012

1999 Cabernet Sauvignon / 93-94 p

Far Niente Winery
Let's stay in the family, Far Niente Winery is the older sibling, founded by Gil Nickel in 1979 on a great spot in Oakville, in the southern end of the historic To Kalon Vineyard, next to Martha's Vineyard (of Heitz Cellars) and just below the grand cru of Harlan Estate, and the more recent founded Futo, for which I predict a great future!
´  The Martin Stelling Vineyard, which this wine comes from, is located just a few miles south of John G Sullenger, but its older and the location and soil is better. Also, which I think may have played an important role, is that the Nickels and their winemaker Dirk Hampson knows every inch of this vineyard - this wines is totally superior to the team's wine from Nickel and Nickel. Here you find concentration, richness, depth, a dark and youthful fruit that evolves in the glass, cassis and blackberries, and, which I really like, some mature aromas of lead pencil and chocolate. On the palate, it's much more intense, fresh and lively, tannins are vital but a bit polished and the aftertaste is long with small notes of plums and sweet fruit in the finish.
   A few years ago, I poured this wine (from magnum) in a tasting of 20+ vintages from Château Mouton-Rothschild, including some very classic vintages, and we were all so surprised that this wine outclassed most of those vintages!
   I still needs decanting to open up, and I think it will evolve into something more complex over the next few years.
Drink it 2012-2019

1999 Signature Cabernet Sauvignon / 92 p

Chappellet Vineyards
The 20 minutes drive on winding roads up the Pritchard Hill, to come to Chappellet Vineyards is well worth the efforts. Although this is a historic vineyard, planted already in the mid 1960s with Philip Togni as the first winemaker in 1969 (thru 1974), far too few people knows about them. The vineyard covers 45.60 hectares, located on several blocks with various exposures on 450 to 510 meters altitude, on a volcanic and stony soil which add a certain mineralitet to the wines.
   This was one of the most elegant wines in the tasting, and even the true Francophiles around the table loved this wine for its purity, minerality, finesse and plethora of fine nuances. Thanks to the mountain climate, the flavors are cooler, more aromatic, slightly grassy, fresh and very elegant in a classic way, and the medium full body offers layers of flavors reminiscent of fine clarets. The two single details that kept it out of Bordeaux (if tasted blind), is a slightly higher alcohol (14.5 percent) and a mintiness, but also, at least for me, the volcanic minerality that is so typical for mountain fruit in Napa Valley.
   It's a gorgeous wine, and this is not even their "best" bottling. Still it compared very well with the other wines in the tasting. Good job!
Drink it 2012-2019

1999 Cabernet Sauvignon / 91-92 p

Philip Togni Vineyards
On the other side of the valley, and even higher up (at 600 meters elevation) on Spring Mountain, is where you find Philip Togni. After he left Chappellet Vineyards, he bought a small estate with old wines and planted his own now 4.25 hectare vineyard. Since then he crafts some of the most classic and Bordeaux like cabernets of Napa Valley, known to be age worthy and delicious.
   There is always a kind of grassiness in the wines of Togni, since the site is 5-6 degrees cooler compared to the vineyards on the valley floor in St Helena. Another factor of importance, is that Togni doesn't harvest overripe grapes, he is trained in Bordeaux and lives by his classic palate, and the alcohol level in this vintage is 12.5 percent. There's also a lot cassis flavors, fresh and lively as it the wine was much younger, still in a classic fashion with notes of sous bois, leather and coffee, and there's also some notes of the oak. The tannins are still firm, as expected, it normally takes almost 20 years for the wines from Togni to soften. I really liked this wine, but some tasters found it to be a bit unclean.
   When I retasted it three hours after the tasting, I had soften a bit and was slightly more complex. I just think it need some time in the decanter.
Drink it 2012-2019

1999 Gravelly Meadow Cabernet Sauvignon / 93 p

Diamond Creek Vineyards
Terroir is the true definition at Diamond Creek Vineyards. Yet the late Al Brounstein had to fight for that and his ideas that his five vineyard blocks (totally 8.40 hectares) at his estate in Diamond Mountain gave totally different wines. Now we know, and we have known that for a long time. This year, its 40 years ago he harvested his first vintage.
   This wine, a one hundred percent cabernet wine, comes from the 2.00 hectare Gravelly Meadow Vineyard, planted at an elevation of 220 meters, which is the lowest of the vineyards on the estate, and since the gravelly soil is so well drained and doesn't hold water, it's a bit colder than the other vineyards, and the yields are also very small, normally 15-20 hectoliters per hectare.
   It's a lovely wine with a good density, dark and rich fruit with notes of cassis and blackberries that comes in layers with oriental spices, and a complex minerality of earth and crushed stones, and as always with the Diamond Creek wines, it has a huge structure. Yes, this is tannic, but the quality of the tannins is superb. Still I'd like to come back to this wine in a few years from now, my older references of the wines from this estate tells me that. For instance, I just love the wines from 1992 and 1994, they show just beautiful right now. This 1999 will join them in that, soon.
   Decant it at least 45 minutes before pouring it.
Drink it 2014-2024

Winemaker Chris Carpenter

1999 Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon / 89 p

Lokoya
This was the last vintage of the first winemaker, Marco diGiulio, and his assistant winemaker Chris Carpenter took over after him and has been the winemaker since. With the right to select the best grapes in the now late Jess Jackson's vineyard lots in the mountain districts of Napa Valley, these two winemakers created one of the greatest wine estates in the valley, the Lokoya.
   I was totally surprised by this wine, I didn't expect it to be so elegant, so Bordeaux like, and with such a coffee note, and although it had some depths and concentration, it didn't really have that Lokoya thing. However it offered the typical minerality I so often find in the wines from Howell Mountain, also a slight herbaceous note which can be explained by the cooler growing season, and of course the firm tannic structure. I tried the wine later that same evening, and it showed a little bit less coffee toasted then, and even though I liked it, it still didn't impress me the way I expected. I very much more prefer the 1995, 1997 (although heavy weight wines) and the more complete 2001 and 2002 vintages.
   Drink it 2012-2017

1999 Hillside Select Cabernet Sauvignon / 94 p

Shafer Vineyards
This wine shows totally different from the others, it has that Shafer richness, the ripe and lush cassis, blackberry and dark cherry qualities, and still a slightly oaky touch. Compared to all other wines it appears to be several years younger, there so much more primary fruit flavor here, so much more richness, silkiness, intensity, and length. It's a pure Cabernet Sauvignon, predominately from the hillside behind the winery, and it's raised in brand new French oak barrels for around 34 months, which helped to polish the tannins. Style wise it's also the most powerful and the alcohol level touch 15 percent and is of course notable in the finish, but the overall balance is there and it's truly a delicious wine.
   Of all the wines tasted this evening, this was the one that won most of aeration. Even five hours after it was decanted, it tastes lovely.  
Drink it 2012-2022

Echoes from the past - Louis M Martini wines with age

Only five wineries survived the prohibition. Two of them was in Napa Valley, Beringer Vineyards (founded 1876) and Beaulieu Vineyards (founded 1900). After prohibition, just a few wineries came back in production, and by 1960 there was just around 250 wine producers in California. In Napa Valley, there were a dozen. The new golden age wouldn't come until early 1970s, in the footsteps of the opening of Robert Mondavi Winery in 1966, and some years after the Paris Tasting in 1976, wine had become a more significant part of the culture in California.  
   Back in the 1950s and 1960s, the wine scene looked much different than it does today. I Napa Valley, some good wines was made at Beringer Vineyards, Beaulieu Vineyards, Christian Brothers, at the legendary Inglenook, by the Mondavi family at Charles Krug Winery, and at Louis M Martini in St Helena.

Louis Martini established his wine company already in 1923, when he bought a small winery in Fresno in Central Valley and started to buy, pack and sell grapes to home winemakers all over the country. Ten years later, after repeal, he moved to Napa Valley, which at that time was a rural valley with orchards, walnut farms and cattle ranches. There were only a few wineries, but no market for fine wines.

In 1940 Louis Martini begun to bottle some of his wines under his own label, and over some years he also bought several vineyard and more land to plant vineyards in Napa County (he was one of the pioneers in Carneros), Sonoma County (notably the famous Monte Rosso Vineyard) and in Lake County. 

   The Louis M Martini Winery reached its peak during the 1950s and 1960s, at that time the only wineries that could compete with their quality was Inglenook and Beaulieu Vineyards. In the late 1950s, Louis Martini was the first winemaker in California to install stainless steel tanks to ferment his wines in - up to that date, only old redwood tanks or cement vats were used.

When Louis Martini retired in 1959, his son Louis Peter Martini took over and was in charge of the wine making until 1977, when his son Michael Martini took over. He's still in charge of the production, even though the Gallo family bought Louis M Martini Winery in 2002.

   I decided not to rate these old wines, how does one do that? What does the scores tell you? These are old and rare wines, echoes from the past. They are part of the Napa Valley wine history, of the California wine history. Bottles like these are not easy to find, they just show up if you are lucky. I was blessed by the opportunity to buy parts of an old cellar, and it was worth every dollar. Memories from the past are in my world not subjects for judging, for scoring, or for even consider if they are worth the prices asked for or not. For me, they are part of the lifelong education, and they tell you something about where we are today. If these wines have kept so well, I guess we don't have to worry too much over more recent vintages.

1966 California Mountain Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon / NR

As for the 1958 wine, this bottle was also in good shape with a firm (but short) cork and good level. Surprisingly, it was almost a bit closed the first ten minutes in the glass - I decanted it from its sediment right before serving it - but it opened up just fine over time in the glass. It wasn't as intense and concentrated as the 1958, but it shared the same earthy and sous bois complexity and that kind of sweet fruitiness and tobacco aromas that matured wines shows. I followed this wine over almost an hour in the glass, and it didn't fade away, which I find to be remarkable. On the palate, it's lighter that the 1958, totally mature with silky tannins, a quite soft acidity and a fine sweetness, and the aftertaste is good but not as long and complex as the one in the older vintage. I wasn't around in the wine world at that time, so my knowledge and experience of the vintages is limited, if not non existing. However, I guess that 1966 wasn't as great vintage as the 1958. Still this is a delicious wine that all my wine loving and wine collecting friends were totally overwhelmed by. I would definitely buy another bottle if I come across one.
Drink it over the next few years

1958 California Mountain Special Selection Cabernet Sauvignon / NR

The bottle was in good shape, the level was high shoulder and color looked reddish through the bottle. Of course there was some sediment in the wine, but it looked just fine. It was surprisingly easy to pull the cork, it came out in one piece without any problems. I needed to decant the wine to remove the sediment, but since it was a 53 year old wine, I only decanted it just before serving it. Far too many old wines has died on their way from the bottle to the last served glass, and I didn't want that to happen with this rare wine.
The wine has a bright, clear and mature appearance with tawny brick color with just a slight brownish nuance. The nose was surprisingly clean and vibrant despite the fact that is shows a distinct maturation with notes of prunes, sweet tobacco, chocolate, sous bois and truffles. It may have been a desire or imagination, but I actually felt a totally clean and sweet red fruit aroma as well, which to me indicated the wine was still alive and kicking.
The most interesting detail about this tasting, was that it was poured blind next to another wine, which was younger and more lively, a very good wine but actually not that much more exciting. That wine was the 1976 Château Petrus from Pomerol. Good God!
Well, back to the 1958, on the palate is was just lovely with a seductive texture, just like velvet. The tannins were fully matured and silky, yet they added a certain structure to the superb, slightly sweet fruit. By all means this wine is fully mature, and will not gain anything from further ageing, but I have to say I was more than surprised to see how well the wine kept in the glass, and the decanter, for more than one hour! Even what was left with the sediment in the bottle survived in a surprising way to the day after. I guess this bottle was a great one!
Drink it over the next few years

Captured by Kapcsándy’s 2008s

Since the inaugural vintage, I’ve been impressed by the wines of Lou Kapcsándy and his estate just outside of Yountville. Lou, who founded a construction company in Seattle, came in contact with the American wine business when he built the winery for Chateau Ste Michelle and Columbia Crest in Washington.

The Kapcsándy family moved to California in 1962, and wine slowly became a more important part of the daily life for Lou and his wife Roberta. At that time, there wasn’t too many wineries up and running, but Lou visited the very few that were operation in Napa Valley and Sonoma at the time. Later on, in 1998, he started to import fine wines from France, mostly from Bordeaux, and from his homeland Hungary.

For many years, he had been a huge fan of the Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon from Beringer, and he noted that the Cabernet grapes from the State Lane Vineyard in Yountville very often constituted a significant part of the blend. When he sectrely heard that this vineyard was for sale in 2000, he put a bid on it and bought it. At the time, the vineyard was heavily hit by phylloxera, and Beringer, who since 1975 had a 30 year long lease on farming the vineyard, had cancelled the contract already in 1999, with a new contract to buy grapes the remaining five years.
The truth is that Beringer had wanted to buy the vineyard and replant it, if they had been given such an offer. Instead Lou Kapcsándy bought the vineyard before Beringen knew if was out for sale.
When Lou Kapcsándy took over, he planted the vineyard according to Bordelaise methods, with higher density and lower trained vines, he also changed the row orientation to obtain a more optimal effect of the sun and the airflow. He also made deep analysis on the soil, so he could plant the right grape variety and clone in the perfect matching soil.
The result has since the first vintage 2003 been remarkable, and the wines from Kapcsándy are already now among the finest produced in Napa Valley. Behind that quality and style, one finds a small state of the art and ultra clean winery, a sorting of grapes that is unparalleled, and an ambition that is sky high. Only French oak barrels of the finest quality are used.
Alcohol levels were a bit higher in the 2008 vintage compared to previous vintages, and I hope this was an exception from the rule. Neither Lou Kapcsándy nor his winemaker Denis Malbec is very keen on high alcohol levels, they opt for a maximum strength of 14.5 percent, but most often the alcohol is normally in the range of 13.5 to 14.0 percent.

I must say that these wines are among the finest ever made at this estate. Still I can’t get the outstanding 2007s from my memory. I just tasted the 2007 State Lane Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon (below called "Grand Vin" in the 2008 vintage), which an absolutely stunning effort and a wine of great complexity, although still very youthful and marked by its classical structure. To be honest, you don’t have to look for any given vintage to find pleasure here, you just have to work hard find any bottle at all. And when you do, you’d better buy it.
The total production is around 4 000 cases of wine per year, and every single bottle comes from their own 6.50 hectare State Lane Vineyard.

2008 Endre / 90 p
According to Lou Kapcsándy, this is not a second wine, but another wine. “We put as much efforts in this wine as in the other wines, it’s just a wine with a lighter and more fruity body and leaner palate, made to be enjoyed earlier”, winemaker Denis malbec told me on my last visit at the estate. It’s a blend of about 55 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, 25 percent Merlot, 15 percent Cabernet Franc and a splash of Petit Verdot, all grapes from the estate vineyard. The wine was matured in French oak barrels, 80 percent new, for about 20 months.
As the intention was explained to me, this wine is clean and fruit forward with a sweet dark berry scent, quite elegant and easy to drink thanks to its lean texture with just a fine tannic structure. Style wise it’s related to the more serious wines (sorry for this comment, Denis) of Kapcsándy, but it doesn’t have the weight or the mid palate, or the intensity of flavor or the length. However, it’s good and very drinkable wine.
Drink it 2012-2018

2008 Estate Cuvée / 95 p
The estate cuvée is made to display the personality of the site, and the blend will vary quite a bit from year to year. In this vintage, the wine is made of 68 percent Cabernet Sauvignon (a relatively high proportion), 22 percent Merlot and five percent each of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. It was bottled after 20 months in 70 percent new French oak barrels.
Color is young, dark purple and almost opaque. Although it’s just a baby, the nose is open and offers a great bouquet of ultra pure, sweet and intense dark berry fruit with loads of cassis and blackberries, still it’s overall a very elegant wine with a youthful oak sweetness. What I really liked when I tasted it, and had it in the glass for around 20 minutes, was how slow but well it developed in the glass. Don’t forget it’s a very young wine, it’s should be (and it is) packed with primary aromas, yet I almost wrote complexity in my first tasting notes. On the palate, it is rich with that same purity I always find in the wines from Kapcsándy, they really can afford to use only the very best grapes, therefore the texture is lush and silky and just held together with a very fine tannic structure. The oak is well integrated, although at this stage just a bit toasty. Consider the youth of this wine, the finish is very long, and delicious.
Drinking it in the coming few years, I’d give it at least one hour in the decanter, and I’d pour it in large Bordeaux glasses. But I recommend a few more years of bottle age, and then the true complexity will be there.
Drink it 2013-2028

2008 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon Grand Vin / 98-100 p
This is another absolutely stunning effort of this wine, just like the 2007 vintage of it. In this vintage the blend was 87 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, five percent each of Merlot and Cabernet Franc and just three percent of Petit Verdot. It was kept in French oak barrels, 85 percent new, for around 20 months.
As the Estate Cuvée, the color is dark, almost opaque, but the rest is quite different although you’ll see the house style. First of all, the nose is just stunning, totally amazing in its intensity and concentration, which however doesn’t make the wine overblown in any sense. On the contrary it’s so elegant thanks to its purity and freshness, and in contrast to the Estate Cuvée, there are already those complex Bordeaux like notes of cedar, lead pencil and grassiness (which is not unripness, but a quality sign on a perfect harvest decision). Still the fruit is dark, a bit sweetish and just lovely. On the palate it’s very rich with a great intensity, good mid palate and lingering aftertaste, it is well held together by the firm but perfectly ripe tannic structure, and thanks to the acidity the taste is fresh. Neither oak nor alcohol stands out, which is another sign of a very great wine, but there is s slight oak bitterness in the very finish of the taste, which is totally natural is a young wine like this.
As for the Estate Cuvée, some more years of bottle age is recommended, and the serving recommendations are the same. This wine though, would most likely live much longer.
Since it was only made in 400 cases, and Robert Parker gave it a perfect 100 point score, it will be very hard to find. However, it’s well worth trying!
Drink it 2014-2038

2008 Roberta’s Blend / 98 p
I have said many times that the Roberta’s Blend is one of the very best Merlot wines in the world. This vintage is another proof of that statement. In this vintage, there’s just four percent of Cabernet Franc in the blend, and the wine was raised in brand new French oak barrels for 18 months. “This vintage may well be the best we’ve achieved so far”, Lou Kapcsándy said when we tasted the wine together, and I’m willing to agree. As in the others wines, color is impressive, as is the nose. It boasts of dark ripe fruit, loads of blueberries, blackberries and cassis, and there’s also a very fine note of hazelnuts and dark chocolate from the oak, that marries just perfect with the fruit. On the palate, it’s richer than the Grand Vin, still the structure is there to make it totally dry and perfectly well balanced, and it’s just a wonderful wine with a great intensity and energy, and it will be a lolely wine to keep at least ten years to see how the complexity evolves over the years.
Serving recommendation is the same as for the other wines.
Drink it 2012-2033

2008 Vino del Sol / 95 p
This is a fun little sweet wine, made in a different way than in the 2007 vintage, when it was made entirely from dehydrated Merlot grapes from Roberta’s Block. In this vintage, it’s a blend of 47 percent Merlot, 34 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, 15 percent Cabernet Franc and four percent of Petit Verdot. The grapes were crished and fermented in steel tanks to around five to seven percent of alcohol before a neutral local brandy was added to stop the fermentation and leave around 90 grams of residual sugar in the wine and out the alcohol strength at 17.6 percent.
This port styled wine is lovely, loaded with sweet and delicious flavors of sun ripe blueberries, black currants and blackberries, and although it’s high in alcohol, it’s much smoother than most ports. Acidity is fine rather than lively, but it gives some needed freshness to the taste. I find it to be a delicious that I’d love to serve at around 16-18 degrees Celsius in medium size glasses to matured blue cheeses, or (which I prefer myself) to rich chocolate desserts.
Drink it 2011-2020

Pierre Seillan of Verité

WINEMAKER OF THE YEAR 2011

So many great winemakers, so few years – so I decided to name two skilled persons Winemaker of the Year every year. Pierre Seillan is the first one this year.

Pierre Seillan was born in Gascogne in France, and worked for some years at the family estate, before he in the late 1960s went to work as an exchange student in Temecula in the southern California. Back in France seven months later, he went to make wines from Cabernet Franc in the Loire Valley, followed by assignment at several estates in Bordeaux over the coming years.
In 1996 he met Jess Jackson, who asked him to come and work in California. Pierre Seillan wasn’t interested – he was too busy making wines in Bordeaux. Next year, Jess Jackson came back to Bordeaux, and asked him again. This time, Pierre accepted the invitation.

“Well, Jess asked me if I thought I could make a wine of equal quality as Château Petrus, and then I said, why not, but why don’t we try to make it even better”, Pierre recalls when we talk about the early years.

Together with Jackson’s vineyard team, Pierre planted the Jackson Park Estate to Merlot, and then started to make some wines under the Verité label in 1998.
Verité, “the truth”, are alongside the Lokoya label, the most impressive wines under the huge Jackson Family Wines umbrella. The idea was to craft a trio of great wines inspired by the sub regions Pomerol, Pauillac and St Emilion of Bordeaux, and the challenge was to make them even better.

The first vintage was the difficult 1998 vintage, and although there were troubles to get the grapes fully ripe, Pierre managed to produce two remarkably fine wines in that year. These wines still holds together, on the nose they behave like fine clarets from Bordeaux, and they even taste pretty well today, although they start to dry out a bit.

To make these fine wines, Pierre gets to select some of the finest lots, of even rows, of vines in the best of the Jackson family’s vineyards in predominately Sonoma. The Merlot grapes are mostly sourced from the outstanding 44.50 hectare Jackson Park Vineyard, situated at 165-186 meters of altitude on gently rolling slopes in the mountain above Benett Valley in Sonoma. It was planted exclusively to Merlot of Clone 181 taken from Château Petrus in Pomerol. To Pierre, that clone was essential to plant to be able to “compete” with the wine from Château Petrus.

Another very important vineyard source is the Alexander Mountain Estate in the eastern part of Alexander Valley, close to the home of the Jackson family. It’s an amazing vineyard, a patchwork of almost 200 smaller vineyard blocks stretching from 210 to 720 meters of altitude, planted to various varieties (Verité uses mostly Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot from here) in poor volcanic soils. Speaking about soils, Pierre Seillan just love the vide variation of soil types in Sonoma – which of course was one of the reasons for him to accept to work here with Jess Jackson.

“We have more different soils here than they have in total in France”, he says.

Pierre also buys grapes from Kellogg Estate at 150 to 280 meters altitude in poor volcanic soils in Knights Valley, where Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot of exceptional quality is grown.

The idea behind Verité is not to produce wines of true terroir from each mountain vineyard, but to create blends of the highest quality, inspired but the blends of Bordeaux. Although I find these wines to be, or at least mature into something very Bordeaux like, there’s one distinctive difference; I find more structure and energy (that’s due to the mineral qualities of these soils) in the Verité wines than in the bordelaise ones.

Three wines are made. La Muse is the Pomerol in the lineup, based on 82-92 percent Merlot depending on the vintage, with the balance of Cabernet Franc and just a dash of Cabernet Sauvignon. La Joie is the Pauillac blend, built on 64-75 percent Cabernet Sauvignon and therefore a bit more structured, whereas the Le Désir is the Saint Emilion in the trio, a lovely wine where Merlot and Cabernet Franc make up around 80-85 percent of the blend, most often in relatively equal parts.
All wines are crafted in more or less the same way, vinified in small lots and then transferred into brand new French oak barrels to spend 14-16 months including the time for malolactic fermentation. They are all bottled without fining or filtration.

The day I came to Verité on my latest visit, Robert Parker was on his way in to taste all wines and vintages ever made at Verité, so I guess his highly interesting report will be published quite soon as well. I look forward to – I’ve tasted all this wines over the years, but not all at the same time. The following wines were tasted over a couple of weeks in April and May (all wines of the same vintage at the same time), in the addition of the 2001 vintage that I tasted a year ago.  

Pierre Seillan also makes the fine wines under the labels Anakota and Archipel, as well as wines in St Emilion and Tuscany.

Vintage  2007

2007 La Muse / 98-100 p
If the initial challenge was to make a wine as good as the one from Château Petrus, this may well have been what both the late Jess Jackson and his winemaker Pierre Seillan had in mind. This is a spectacular wine, already today (whereas the pomerols normally needs at least a decade before the start to show their true caliber). It’s a blend of approximately 90 percent Merlot, all from Jackson Park Vineyard in Bennett Valley, which Pierre Seillan holds as the best site on this planet for Merlot. Well, if not the best, it’s still amazing!
The wine was decanted an hour prior to the tasting, and by then the nose had opened up and offered a rich, ripe and seductive but yet extremely elegant nose with loads of dark berries, but also more complex nuances such as graphite, cacao and mineral. The oak is perfectly integrated, hence not noted in my book (except from the cacao notes). On the palate, it still is young and at first a bit closed, the tannins are firm and hold the fruit body back a bit, and also on the palate the oak is just like a whisper. Compared to the cabernet based wines, this hangs on for longer, and therefore it’s a bit more charming to enjoy already today than there are. However, I would love to retaste this wine in five or eight years, and it’s also then the great potential starts to show.
Drink it 2012-2032

2007 La Joie / 98-100 p
This is just an outstanding wine! It is dark purple and youthful, and it offers a big, intense, deeply concentrated yet so perfumed and elegant nose. On the nose I find cassis and sweet cherries, nuances of rose petals and violets, but also a lovely spiciness, and as all of the wines from Verité, the oak is totally absorbed by the fruit flavors. In many ways, it reminds me of some of the greatest Bordeaux wines when they were just released (1990s, 2000s, and even 2005s), but to be honest I find this wine more elegant and perfectly well polished. It took an hour of aeration before it started to open up, but then it started to show its true potential. I don’t how I managed to keep a quarter of this great wine in the bottle for another day – but I’m glad I did. Over the 24 hours in the opened bottle, it evolved into something even more seductive. The tannins, which already from the beginning were huge but fine, had become a bit softer and now felt silky, but the perfumes and the fruit body was still the same. Without a doubt, this is one of the most profound young wines from Verité I have tasted … yet!
It’s a perfect as I can which for, but still I guess it will evolve into something even more seductive, complex and perfect over the coming years.

Drink it 2012-2032

2007 Le Désir / 97-98 p
There’s really something desirable over this wine. Again, tasted direct from the bottle it was at first a bit shy, very elegant, but a bit closed. But giving it some air, already after 30 minutes in the glass it started to open up and show more of its depths and concentration. At first the nose was much finer tuned and almost shy, but with the help of some air, the flavors turned deeper, darker, and more intense. Also here, Pierre Seillan shows what a master of oak he is – it’s just a shadow of the oak, if even that. I’d rather say the oak flavor is so fine, it’s more likely you wouldn’t write oak in your tasting note. Instead you’ll find a fine blueberry fruit, the fragrance of red berries, and even some grassiness. Om the palate it’s elegant in the way a Francophile would love, but with more intensity, and (pardon my French) a taste, body, intensity and texture most vignerons in Bordeaux could only dream of. It’s really a first growth of Sonoma!
Also with this wine, I kept the bottle a day, to see how well the wine performed after 24 hours of decanting. And it kept, and it evolved into even greater complexity. It’s really a great wine!
Drink it 2012-2030

Vintage  2006

2006 La Muse / 94-95 p
If the intention was to impress on, and convince those who have their doubts about, 1) Merlot is not a great grape variety, 2) Merlot from California is even worse, and 3) no one on earth can make better wines of Merlot the those of Pomerol, this wine would be one of my California choices in that competition. With 14.1 percent of alcohol, an impressively deep and dark fruit flavor that lingers for a minute in a fine balance with tannins and acidity, and as with all the other wines in the Verité family an almost hidden oak character, it’s actually quite French in style.  I really enjoy the energy in this wine, and although it takes an hour in the decanter for the finest balance to appear, it’s very elegant already from the bottle. The overall balance is one of the greatest assets in this gorgeous wine. As all Verité wines it should be decanted a good hour prior to serving it, if drunk young. But the best you can do, is to let it rest for some years in the cellars.
Drink it 2012-2026

2006 La Joie / 95-97 p
At first this wine showed a great concentration and intensity, yet a very fine tuned elegance with notes of graphite and cedar tree in addition to the perfectly ripe but not overripe and sweetish blueberry and cassis fruit. It took a while for wine to open up – actually, even the day after it stayed more or less the same in the opened bottle – but one thing that impressed on me, was the elegance. It’s really a beauty!
The structure is serious, tannins are firm but ripe and therefore on the elegant side. Even though the wine offers a ripe and to a certain extent sweet blueberry, cassis and cherry fruit, the tannins and the fresh acidity give the wine a very classic and complex taste, with a long and dry finish. There was a small bitter taste (from the oak?) during the first hours, but the air polished it and then the texture was more refined. Given the fact this wine kept so extremely well in the open bottle, there’s no hurry to drink it. It will keep!

Drink it 2012-2030

2006 Le Désir / 96-97 p
This vintage is almost as impressive as the 2007, slightly earthy with notes of chocolate (rather cacao) in combination with the ripe and somehow sweetish dark fruit body, with notes of cherries, blackberries and blueberries. Still it’s very elegant, even Bordeaux like, but young and at this stage more marked by fruit than what normally would be described as complexity. Nevertheless, so much finesse and elegance has been captured in this wine, it’ll just take a few more years of bottle age before we write “complexity” and all Bordeauxish adjectives in our tasting notes. More than the 2007 version, this gained from the one day decanting I gave the wine. On the palate, it tastes fresher and a bit more red fruit scented than expected, the acidity is lively and the tannins are young and quite firm, but mature. Still I’d give this wine at least one year more in the bottle. I guess it would keep as well as the 2007 version, but I doubt it will be the better one after ten years.
Drink it 2012-2030

Vintage  2004

2004 La Muse / 95 p
This wine was composed of 86 percent Merlot, seven percent of Cabernet Franc and the rest Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec. Although the vintage was unusual warm and the fruit is rich and dark scented, there are no overripe flavors at all, well, besides the ripe, almost sweetish blueberry like Merlot flavors that is. Even when I tasted this wine three years ago, it was silky and well balanced, and with some more years of bottle age, the fine minerality is now more present, which of course is a great asset for the overall finesse. Also, a slight note of chocolate (from the oak, I guess) and sous-bois has developed over the years. It’s a great example from a vintage that overall gave ripe, delicious but not always excellent and perfectly balanced wines. I recommend an hour in the decanter before serving it, and a serving temperature of around 18 degrees to enhance the finer and fresher notes in the wine.
Drink it 2011-2022

2004 La Joie / 95-96 p

In this wine, Pierre Seillan included some grapes that normally go into the Anakota wines, and the final blend was 66 percent of Cabernet Sauvignon, 19 percent of Merlot, ten of Cabernet Franc and the rest of Petit Verdot. It’s as good as the Le Désir, and again it’s not obvious (if tasted blind) that this wine come from a very warm vintage. On the nose, it’s still rich and intense, but with its higher proportion of Cabernet Sauvignon, the tannic structure is much more firm compared to the other wines, so it behaves a bit younger and a bit dryer. It also offers slightly sweetish dark berry aromas, both blueberries and cassis, also a fine note of cedar tree, which most likely comes from the oak. Compared to my tasting notes some years ago, the aftertaste seems to be longer and more refined, I guess that’s due to the more polished tannins today. Still I’d like to decant this wine and serve it in a large Bordeaux glass, at 18 degrees Celsius for the finest balance, and to rich dish of beef of venison. To integrated the tannins a bit more, and make the wine even more silky and seductive, I would add a component with a fat or creamy texture – that’s the easiest way to please you palate when you serve a young and very serious Cabernet Sauvignon wine.
Drink it 2011-2024

2004 Le Désir / 96 p

This is a lovely St Emilion interpretation!  It’s dense, dark fruit scented and concentrated, yet so elegant with a phenomenal complexity for being a 2004, and there’s enough structure of tannins to match the slightly richer fruit than average here at Verité. When I tasted it three years ago, it was a bit closed, but now it has opened up and reveals fine notes of ink, cedar and chocolate, but of these notes are finely integrated as small shadows in the purely fruity and almost silky body, that lingers for more than a minute.
This vintage was composed of 49 percent of Merlot, 47 percent of Cabernet Franc and just a few percent of Cabernet Sauvignon. It is definitely one of the finest Bordeaux inspired wines of the 2004 vintage from California’s north coast, Sonoma County and Napa Valley included. Since it continued to open up in the glass when I tasted it, I guess it’s a good idea to decant it a good hour before you serve it, at least if you’ll be drinking it in the coming few years. 
Drink it 2011-2024

Vintage  2001

2001 La Muse / 96 p
Please take into consideration that the lineup of 2001s were tasted a year ago. Then this wine was dark, still youthful with fully ripe, dense and concentrated fruit flavor, still young with a good grip from the tannins which made up a very fine structure together with a lively acidity and minerality. The structure is still there, and still as magnificent as before. As in all vintages of La Muse, there’s a great balance, where the concentrated fruit never gets too sweet, it just makes you believe there’s some sweetness. This wine can really rival the very finest wines of Pomerol.
It should be decanted, not only to remove the fine sediment that may be there, rather more for the aeration. I’d serve this wine to a dish (chicken, red meat or even white fish) with butter fried mushrooms or truffle – that’s the perfect flavor match to a great Merlot based wine in its early stage of maturity.
Drink it 2011-2021

2001 La Joie / 97 p
Of the three 2001s, this always was and still is the most structured, it was a closed a few years ago, but is now a more open, yet youthful with layers of intense primary fruit flavors and it is extremely elegant and complex. Oak is not really part of the wines from Verité, but there’s a fine note of walnuts and cedar tree that I find very attractive. On the palate, it’s medium to full bodied, still young and relatively firm, tannins are important but ripe and therefore rather velvet like, and in the very long finish, the fresh acidity is perfectly well in balance with the fruit and the tickling mineral notes. Seamless would be a good word to describe the texture of this great wine – the finest (to my knowledge) of Cabernet Sauvignon based wines of Sonoma County this vintage.
Give it an hour in the decanter before you enjoy it. It’s still young, and it will open up with some air.
Drink it 2011-2025

2001 Le Désir / 97 p

Again, another great and extremely seductive effort of the Le Désir – one of the most complex Bordeaux styled wines in Sonoma County. Color in this ten year old is still dark and youthful with a touch of purple. The nose is stunning, rich and loaded with dark berry fruit, a bit spicy with fine tuned nuances of cedar tree, almonds and walnuts, also some tobacco which indicates a certain level of maturity, still the wine is young and full of primary fruit flavors. It’s very elegant, although medium plus bodied with good intensity and concentration, still so elegant and well balanced. In the long, lingering finish, you’ll find some tickling minerality, and the acidity gives a great energy to it. 
As for the other two 2001s, decanting is recommended, also to serve it at around 18 degrees Celsius in a large Bordeaux glass.
Drink it 2011-2023

Vintage  1998

1998 Verité / 90 p
In this inaugural vintage, this wine was only called Verité, but later it would become La Muse. It was made of 90 percent Merlot and ten percent Cabernet Sauvignon. As for the 1998 La Joie, it’s a lovely wine with very much Bordeaux like aromas and flavors, and the right words to use as descriptors would be “complex”, “noble maturity”, “forest floor” and “truffle”, but overall there’s a great balance, a fine structure with polished but still vital tannins. When I tasted the wines two years ago, the aftertaste was sublime and long, today it have started to decline and dry out a bit – but what’s there, is very fine. Still I wouldn’t keep the wine much longer – it’s good as it is right now.
In my first tasting notes of this wine, I gave it 92-93 points.
Drink it 2011-2012

1998 Verité La Joie / 91 p

Wow, isn’t this fantastic! When every Cabernet Sauvignon winemaker in California complained over the wet and cool vintage, Pierre Seillan was quite happy about the climate in Sonoma, although he said it was a bit of a difficult vintage. I have tasted this wine, made of 70 percent Cabernet Sauvignon and 30 percent Merlot, several times over the years, and it’s now fully mature and very elegant with that kind of magic secondary aromas that only time will create. Any good taster, American or French, would put this wine in Bordeaux in a blind tasting.
Color is still surprisingly dark, but the tawny rim reveals the maturity of the wine. On the nose, ultra complex notes of cigars, cedar tree, sous-bois and dried mushrooms tell you the same story. On the palate, its much lighter (due to its age, and the weaker vintage) compared to the younger vintages, but there’s enough complexity and structure to make it very drinkable. It shouldn’t be decanted too long in advance, actually I’d rather decant it just before serving it, just to remove the fine sediment.
In my notes from 2008, I gave the wine 92-93 points.
Drink it 2011-2014

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