Wine & Spirits - December 2019 - 42

YEAR'S BEST US CABERNETS & BLENDS
Our blind panels tasted 668 new-release cabernet-based wines over the past 12 months. Joshua Greene, our critic for Northern
California, and Patrick J. Comiskey, our critic for California's Central Coast, Oregon and Washington, rated 208 as exceptional (90+)
and 52 as Best Buys. Find a complete list of wines tasted and all reviews at wineandspiritsmagazine.com.
an old-fashioned sense of Napa Valley, before
the wines got fancy. Decant it for Mediterranean lamb. (1,600 cases) -J.G.
517364

CA LI FO RN I A
N A PA V A L L E Y

94 | Chappellet

517756

95 | Duckhorn

$150

2015 Napa Valley The Discussion ^ Renee
Ary focuses this wine on Duckhorn's top
estate parcels rather than varieties, blending cabernet sauvignon (66 percent), merlot
(29 percent) and small amounts of cabernet
franc and petit verdot. She ages the wine
in new French oak barrels for 18 months,
then lets it rest in neutral oak for another
six months, where, in 2015, it developed
the seamless beauty and textural finesse
that's already apparent on release. It tastes
like good benchland cabernet, with tobacco
scents adding depth to the wild mulberry flavors. The grape-skin tannins create tension
in the wine, corralling all the tropical chocolate richness and focusing it into the layered
pre-expression of a rose bud, packing scents
of cherry skins and morels into a wine with
years of development ahead. (W&S 10/19;
2,025 cases) -J.G.
518184

94 | Blackbird Vineyards

$135

2016 Napa Valley Contrarian ^ Though
Blackbird's original wine was a merlotfocused blend, current winemaker Aaron
Pott takes Contrarian in a savory, less voluptuous direction. The wine is grounded by
cabernet sauvignon, with a contribution
from Ballard Vineyard on Spring Mountain that lends it stature and breed, as well
as mineral-inflected tannins that carry the
smokiness of rock striking rock. The wine's
blackberry juiciness and black-olive savor
gain depth and detail with air, the flavors
glimmering like cool water in a well. It has
42

WINE & SPIRITS

DECEMBER 2019

$70

2016 Napa Valley Signature Cabernet
Sauvignon ^ This savory cabernet grows on
Pritchard Hill, where Donn Chappellet settled in 1967. These volcanic hills east of St.
Helena provided Phillip Corallo-Titus with
the raw material for a refined and lilting 2016.
He didn't overextract the wine, so the tannic
detail lasts with umami notes of freshly dug
earth, black mushrooms and blueberry skins.
The fruit is integrated, with dark blueberry
density and brighter purple notes feeling
refined, putting the pretty side of cabernet
on view-a rarity among the muscle cabs of
Napa Valley. (W&S 10/19) -J.G.

in Rutherford, the other in Oakville. Its time
in French oak barrels, most of them new,
shows in the rich notes of espresso-roast coffee that dominate the wine for its first two
days open. But the wine's silken elegance
begins to win out with air, its firm structure
showing more clearly. The flavors will open
with decanting and wood-fired grilled meats.
(2,000 cases) -J.G.
517366

93 | Chappellet

$125

2016 Napa Valley Estate Hideaway Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon ^ This is 100
percent cabernet sauvignon from a vineyard block at an elevation of 1,425 feet on
Pritchard Hill. It shows a family resemblance
to Chappellet's 2016 Signature Cabernet
(also recommended in this issue) in the fine
integration of the tannins and the bue fruit,
this one feeling like a bolt of silk-except that
silk flows, and this wine feels crisply tailored,
with a clean line to the blueberry-skin flavors.
It's tight and tense while still offering clarity
to its flavors, suggesting a long life ahead.
(W&S 10/19; 1,004 cases) -J.G.

518527

94 | Sterling

$275

2015 Napa Valley Iridium Cabernet Sauvignon ^ Harry Hansen blended this wine from
vineyards including Meigs in Wooden Valley,
Sleeping Lady in Yountville, Hewitt in Rutherford and the winery's Peterson estate on
Diamond Mountain. He fermented it in a
combination of concrete tanks, stainless steel
and French oak, then aged it for 18 months
in French oak barrels, 66 percent new. It is,
by far, the best Sterling wine we've tasted in
decades. Its fresh damson plum flavor gives
it the classic profile of a finely ripened cabernet, while rocky tannins provide a firm
structure to surround that sleek core of fruit
purity. It's beautifully knit and sustains that
integration over the course of days, developing detail in its flavors while holding fresh.
Built to cellar. (3,950 cases) -J.G.
518520

93 | Cakebread

$140

2016 Napa Valley Benchland Select Cabernet Sauvignon ^ Julianne Laks blends this
wine from two western benchland sites, one

517760

93 | Duckhorn

$78

2016 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon ^
There's black-currant clarity to this clean
and luscious cabernet, a blend of Duckhorn's
estate-grown fruit with purchased grapes.
The dark fruit is layered with brighter blackraspberry flavor and rich chocolate tones
from its time in French oak barrels (50 percent new). Relatively light in weight but saturated in flavor, the wine sustains a lovely
mineral tension as it opens with air. (W&S
10/19) -J.G.
518504

http://www.wineandspiritsmagazine.com https://www.duckhorn.com/product/2015-duckhorn-vineyards-the-discussion-napa-valley-red-wine?pageID=8CF4442C-95C5-06A6-8BDF-D88E2E1BBCD3&sortBy=DisplayOrder&maxRows=36&&productListName=Current%20Releases&position=25 https://www.sterlingvineyards.com/en-us/wines/iridium/iridium-cabernet-sauvignon/2015 https://www.duckhorn.com/product/2016-duckhorn-vineyards-napa-valley-cabernet-sauvignon?pageID=8CF4442C-95C5-06A6-8BDF-D88E2E1BBCD3&sortBy=DisplayOrder&maxRows=36&vintage=2016&&productListName=Current%20Releases&position=7

Wine & Spirits - December 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Wine & Spirits - December 2019