Lot 282 | 2009 Napa Valley

This wine has gorgeous color, its deep plum core with a magenta rim showing excellent extraction. Despite its youth, this wine is already showing beautiful fat blackberry fruit and cassis aromatics with ample minerality and hints of cinnamon spice hinting there is plenty of complexity to come. On the palate blackberry and blueberry fruit are nicely wound up in a succulent texture of super-fine tannins (almost imperceptible they are so well integrated) finishing with red currants, blueberry pie and vanilla. Very classical Napa styling on this wine and while it’s fairly primary now, it shows beautiful integration and blossoms nicely with good complexity after an hour in the decanter or an overnight decant (pour the wine into a decanter for an hour and then pour back into the bottle and cork until the following evening).

Lot 282 2009 Rutherford Cabernet is perfectly suited for the task with impeccable provenance from one of Napa Valley's flagship Cabernet producers. Sourced from the well-drained alluvial soils of the west side of Rutherford appellation, this wine explodes with rich and ripe, yet elegant, fruit. Classically proportioned one would say. The source winery approached us last fall and we contracted quite a few different 2009 Cabernet's that they then barreled down for us until we removed them last summer for bottling. The best of them is this 2009 Rutherford Cabernet (their $80 Rutherford appellation Cabernet being their consistently best rated wine with the 2008 scoring 93+ from Parker). Lot 282 is the exact same wine they bottled for the 2009 vintage under their own label. How do I know this? Not only because they told us as much but because they sold us the entire production at first and then asked very nicely last spring with the economy looking better if they couldn't have some back.