Wine & Spirits - Winter 2017 - 100

100 BEST WINES OF THE YEAR
it was an exploration, to see just what this
property could do. Clearly, it can do spectacular things, as this blend of cabernet and
malbec shows. At once elegant and powerful,
the wine has an aromatic tension between
leafy, cedary notes and the dark, inky depths
of fruit that Red Mountain can provide. The
flavors are deeply influenced by the malbec, which contributes purple florals and a
blueberry-skin grip of tannins. There's some
welcome acidity in the finish that gives the
wine a cool savor despite its unmistakable
Red Mountain power. Cellar this to serve
with rosemary-rubbed lamb shoulder. (W&S
10/17; 50 cases)

447774

95 | Pepper Bridge

$65

2013 Walla Walla Valley Trine ^ A blend of
five varieties from three vineyards, this has
a textural suppleness that feels like a breakthrough for Pepper Bridge. The blend leads
with cabernets sauvignon and franc, and the
franc component seems to contribute that
classic Walla Walla feel of tobacco leaf over
black cherries and plums. It's a savory wine,
vinous, vibrant and supple, marked by fine,
thrillingly sensuous tannins. As sexy a wine
as Jean-François Pellet has ever made. (W&S
4/17; 912 cases)

BEST CABERNET SAUVIGNON

446121

100 | Diamond Creek

$225

2013 Diamond Mountain District Napa
Valley Volcanic Hill Cabernet Sauvignon ^
Initially used for storage, oak barrels, and
their transformational qualities, have long
been a matter of close study by winegrowers. In the New World, oak has become a
flavoring agent, especially when fruit from
young cabernet vines is used with winemak100

WINE & SPIRITS

ing strategies adopted from Bordeaux's Left
Bank. In fact, the premier cru wines of the
Médoc-and the grands crus of the Côte de
Nuits-have an unparalleled ability to eat
new oak, so that rather than genericizing
the wine, making it fat and delicious, time
in new oak barrels adds a frame to the wine,
becoming almost an invisible element of the
taste. This is something that is rare, both in
the New World and the Old: In 35 years of
blind tastings, I have never come across a
California cabernet that handles oak as graciously as this vintage of Diamond Creek's
Volcanic Hill. In recent vintages, winemaker
Phil Steinschriber has adopted the somewhat controversial practice of introducing a
second round of new oak barrels during the
aging of his cabernets. He does it selectively,
and in 2013, it may have helped to both tame
the wine and frame it for long aging. Volcanic
Hill starts out with a trumpet blare of black
cherry flavor, a deep blue savor to the fruit,
an explosive richness that's transformed into
silken delicacy by its time in oak, in the way
that a young Charmes-Chambertin might
feel in a great vintage. This vineyard, on a
south-facing slope of white volcanic ash,
often produces the most powerful of Diamond Creek's wines. As I tasted this wine
over the course of several days, there was a
moment in the chaos of a young Napa Valley
cabernet when it reached the sublime. (W&S
12/16; 608 cases)
449170

96 | Corison

$165

2013 Napa Valley Kronos Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon ^ Napa Valley cabernet is
often formidable, but it's rare to find one
that's both formidable and fresh. Kronos is
racy in 2013, lean and lithe with the energy
and dynamism of the vintage. Kronos is
Cathy Corison's estate vineyard, eight acres
surrounding her winery on the west side of
Highway 29 in southern St. Helena. The
cabernet was planted in 1971 on St. George
rootstock, which has the benefit of naturally limiting yields; it also helped the vines
survive the region's most recent bout with
phylloxera. The freshness of this wine's acidity is unusual in contemporary Napa Valley
(especially in the up-valley reaches of St. Helena); it lends a tart, fruit-skin crunch to the
red cherry and darker plum flavors, and lifts
the scent with violet notes. Brilliant cabernet, this is rooted in the best aspects of Napa
Valley's past. Cellar a case and it will provide exceptional drinking for years to come.
(W&S 6/17)
446418

BUYING GUIDE 2018

96 | Stag's Leap
Wine Cellars

$260

95 | Inglenook

$210

2013 Stags Leap District Napa Valley Cask
23 Cabernet Sauvignon ^ Marcus Notaro
came to SLWC from Col Solare in Washington State. He blended the 2012s and worked
on the 2013s with Kirk Grace, who manages
the two estate vineyards-S.L.V. and Fay-
that come together in Cask 23. Fay is an alluvial wash on the valley floor below the Stags
Leap escarpment, with some blocks higher
up the hillside, where the soils share more of
the volcanic rock of S.L.V., a less fertile and
faster draining colluvial mix fallen down
from the hills above. Notaro uses those upper
blocks of Fay and S.L.V. to build structure in
Cask 23, as well as selections from vines on
the lower, silty soils that offer a lighter, more
fragrant cabernet. What's remarkable about
this 2013 is how those elements combine in a
wine with the textural richness and polish of
great Stags Leap District cabernet and then
expand into fragrance. It's a wine with forward motion, what senior editor Luke Sykora
described as "a torrent of fruit in the middle,
propulsive fruit that pushes the oak to the
side." The lasting impression is savory and
bright, a wine that looks up to the future, one
that will live long among the greats of the
2013 vintage in Napa Valley. (W&S 12/16;
3,900 cases)
450137
2014 Rutherford Napa Valley Rubicon
Cabernet Sauvignon ^ The 2014 Rubicon is
part of a trajectory of change at Inglenook,
begun when Philippe Bascaules arrived in
2011 as estate director. He has worked with
viticulturist Enrique Herrera to moderate
sun exposure on the grapes and to prune
early, in December, so that the bloom and
harvest occur earlier in the season. His goal
is to avoid excess heat and to ripen the cabernet during August, as he believes early
ripening to be more efficient, allowing him
to pick fruit without the cooked flavors that
might come with longer hang time. He shortened the growing season by ten days between
2012 and 2013, and an additional three days
in 2014, selecting the most perfectly ripe
grapes for Rubicon. His 2014 may be the finest release yet under his tenure, a classical
Rutherford cabernet with sapid red fruit and
the kind of deep, umami-rich tannins that
André Tchelistcheff once described as Rutherford dust. Or maybe they're a little more
gravelly than that. Those distinctive tannins
allow the wine to feel elegant and clean while
still lending it tensile strength. (W&S 10/17)

http://www.pepperbridge.com/2013-trine https://www.diamondcreekvineyards.com/home.html

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