96pts Tasting Panel
Elegant and velvety; deep, rich, and balanced, with notes of toasty oak, ripe plum, and black raspberry as well as great finesse and length.
95pts Wine Enthusiast
This dense, rich, almost chewy wine grown on hillsides strewn with obsidian is packed with delicious black fruits, dark chocolate, mint and a hint of sage. All these flavors fill out the smooth but firm frame of soft tannins. Having aged in 75% new Hungarian barrels. Cellar Selection.
93pts Wine & Spirits
Alex Beloz blends his top cellar selection for his club members, incorporating fruit from all three climate zones of the estate. The wine includes petit verdot and petite sirah (8 percent each) grown at the highest point in the vineyards, above the fog line at 2,640 feet—a half mile above sea level. The cabernet selections range from vines at 2,300 feet up to the high point, the blend aged in Hungarian oak barrels (75 percent new). This is a beautiful mountain wine from Lake County, its fruit tart without being sour, its red-currant astringency and fresh plum skin tannins providing refinement to the structure. Firm and juicy in its stance, light and airy in its delivery, this is well worth a place in your cellar.
92pts James Suckling
Aromas of blackberries, dark cherries, plums, sweet spices and pine cones. Hazelnuts, too. It’s full-bodied with chewy tannins. Fleshy, with a creamy, flavorful finish. Drink from 2023.
Winemaker Notes
Aromas of fresh blackberry juice and black cherries laced with brown sugar. The texture is velvety smooth, and the wine is packed with generous fruit. Flavors of ripe black cherries and blackberries are complemented by intriguing hints of pencil lead shavings, roasted coffee beans and the bark of cedar. This is a massive wine that still holds its balance with graceful acid and tannin through the finish.