Clos du Val 2015 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon

This wine delivers everything one is looking for from a great vintage. The color is an inky purple hue and the wine has aromas of black fruits, baking spices, dark chocolate and leather. The palate is rich and complex, full of flavors of berry pie, mocha, cedar, black pepper and vanilla toast. The texture is creamy, round and full with structured tannins that are approachable now or will cellar well for decades.

Alcohol percentage: 14.7

Tasting Notes

VINTAGE NOTES: The 2015 season proved to be warm (or even just plain hot), meaning that harvest started and ended early. A major hurdle in Napa Valley was the series of rains in the early part of the season that washed off the pollen on the flowering grapes. This is called shatter and essentially means many of the grapes on each cluster never turned to fruit. The low yield ended up concentrating the flavors on the grapes that were brought in to the winery and resulted in some of the most concentrated wines the winery has seen in a long time. The fruit for this wine was hand-picked August 26 – September 22.TASTING NOTES: The 2015 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon is brimming with classic characteristics of cassis, bramble fruit and blueberry. The hints of butterscotch on the long, smooth finish are a giveaway of the new, carefully selected French oak barrel influence.WINEMAKER: Ted Henry