A bruisingly fun and deeply rich wine from the Spring Mountain AVA in Napa Valley. It is also pleasantly bruising. Possibly even richly deep. Like all Petite Sirah, this isn’t a thinking man’s wine. It’s more of a NSFW video on Tosh.0. A thick drape of purple, a velvet Elvis of epic magnitude. A tannic beast with a sandalwood soul. A boozy wildflower of the modernist zeitgeist. Don’t drink the whole bottle.
A rock-solid Napa Cab at a rock-solid price. The nose of pencil shavings, vanilla and toast promises great things to come, and it does deliver. The gritty tannic structure is balanced out by rich body of red and dark fruits with a finish of violet and spice. A very good example of how good Napa Cab can be without all the flair (and cost) of over extraction and oaky opulence.
Previous review: A stunning value for Cabernet Sauvignon. It hits all the right notes with verve. Cedar and burnt sage take the lead, followed by allspice and currant. Offers up controlled fruit that ranges toward the dark fruits, including plum. The finish accents a black olive and cassis quality. Very nice.
This Napa review is brought to you by the Wine School of Philadelphia and Bacchus Selections.
Far too many white wines from Napa Valley don’t have the same level of sex appeal that the reds. That is not the problem here. A classic Bordeaux blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon, but this is a very modern style of wine.
The wine starts with aromas of toasted pine nuts and quince, with just a touch of sweet grass. On the palate, there are only a few layers of flavor on this wine, but each of them is rich. The first is a honeyed layer of fruit that oscillates between honeydew and Georgia peach. The next has the minerality of hot stones and coolness of thick steel. Finally, the finish of freshly planted flowers and a touch of lemon zest unfolds long and lubriciously slow.
This wine is a joint project between two respected Napa winemakers: Pam Starr and Drew Neiman. Pam is the former winemaker for Spottswood, and Drew was the winemaker for Kongsgaard. This wine is really about the art of the final, which both Pam and Drew are masters. They don’t grow the grapes or make the wine. Instead, they source high-quality barrels from other Napa producers, and execute a final blend. It sounds simple, but it’s far from it.
Via Wikipedia. This AVA includes all of the county with the exception of the area around Putah Creek and Lake Berryessa. The Napa Valley appellation is 25 miles (40 kilometers) long and between 12 and 8 and 10 miles (16 kilometers) wide, and is sheltered by two parallel mountain ranges. The majority of vineyards occupy the flat valley floor in a continuous strip from Napa to Calistoga, although the slopes are also beginning to be cultivated.
In an office cluttered with wine bottles, both full and empty, it’s hard not to think of myself as Mayor of Boozeville. Every once in awhile, an editor will stroll in and talk shop. Someone else will poke in to pour themselves a glass or two. Other than those few moments, it’s just me and the wine for hours and hours. It’s a lovely job writing wine reviews, but also a bit solitary: a drunken cage of corks, so to speak.
Today, there are more empty Cabernet bottles than anything else on my desk, and that is a very good thing. A mentor of mine once told me that the best way to learn about wine was to pick a grape and dive in. That’s what I have done.
I have been drinking nothing but Cabernet Sauvignon from across the world: from Tuscany to Bordeaux to Napa Valley to South Africa. They all tasted dramatically different, yet each retained a “cab-ishness” quality. One of the most important things I remember from wine school was that each grape varietal has a unique fingerprint. For Cabernet Sauvignon, that fingerprint is an aroma of pencil shavings and green pepper. Sounds gross, but that’s the funny thing about great wine: it unites crazy smells and flavor in surprisingly delicious ways.
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The winemaker, Paul Hobbs, is one of the great masters of Cabernet Sauvignon, and his eponymously named wine is consistently one of the finest, vintage in and vintage out. It’s also one of the most sought-after Napa Valley wines, with a price tag to match. Its little brother, the CrossBarn, is one of the best kept secrets in California.
Fermented using indigenous yeasts, the Paul Hobbs Cabernet is aged 20 months in French and American oak barrels and bottled unfined and unfiltered. He selects the best barrels to go the “Paul Hobbs” bottling. What most folks don’t know is that Paul then makes another barrel selection, and that goes into the “CrossBarn”. The rest gets sold off to other wineries.
The “CrossBarn” is remarkably similar to the “Paul Hobbs,” but at half the price. It is lush and dense with richly soft tannins, it stains the glass with a deep crimson. Full bodied, it offers up rich flavors of blackberry and burnt oak that are deeply embedded into a savory impression of fresh bay laurel and roses.
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