Happy Halloween 🎃 Ghouls, Goblins, and Ops!

AND tomorrow is Day of the Dead?! But for today at least, we are IMMORTAL.

King Hyperion would kneel to this if he had but one sip of this.

All-time favorite Hidden Ridge came and went like a hurricane earlier this year. And if you followed closely, you know that they are now “Immortal Estate.” This legendary producer straddles the border of Napa and Sonoma atop the Mayacamas Mountains and has long been a beacon of value.

Especially compared to their Impassable Mountain bottling, which now fetches $300+. And especially at this life-affirming price for a 95-pointer before you, attainable for even us mere mortals. Scary, ha!

What was once known as the 55-degree slope is now just “Slope” under the new label, but it’s more or less the same big, mountain-bred, perfection-chasing Cabernet we’ve known for decades now.

Jeb Dunnuck explains, “Immortal is a project of Tim Martin of Tusk in Napa, Randy Nichols, and winemaker Timothy Milos. Tim was drawn to the diversity of Sonoma and wanted to make a truly luxury wine on the other side of the mountain. Immortal is a terraced vineyard site planted on 55-degree slopes high in the Mayacamas Mountains. The estate was officially rebranded in 2014. I visited the vineyard with Tim Martin this May and found it to be truly one of the more unique sites I’ve seen, tucked into incredibly rugged and mountainous terrain. The wines are opulent, luxurious, and highly finessed while retaining the hallmark piney herbaceousness that the other side of the mountain has to offer. I would encourage lovers of Napa to explore these wines as a gateway to Sonoma.”

Other snippets from the press are endless. “Few estates coming close to this level of quality in Sonoma with Cabernet Sauvignon” is a good place to start, as Robb Report underlines, and they continue: “Immortal’s steeply sloped estate vineyard falls on the Sonoma side of the line. That’s a good thing: Rising from 1,100 to 1,700 feet, the vines enjoy cooling ocean breezes from the west (which never quite make it into Napa), stretching the growing season - hence good acidity, complexity and mature tannins.”

Incredibly complex, deeply concentrated, and hedonistic, the 2019 Slope, with six years of age at this point, is just entering a perfect drinking window that should extend well through the next few decades. If you had any of the previous Hidden Ridge (2006-2012), you have a good idea where it’s headed.

In the glass, it’s dense, dark, purple, and blue, and black fruit laden. With heaps of black currant, creme de cassis, blackberries, and Morello cherries layered over roasted walnut, toasty sweet French oak, and fine-knit tannins holding it together. Terrific spread across the palate with weight and density that never lingers but carries through into a finish longer than the Spartans held off Xerxes.

Today, it’s a pure treat for us to enjoy. Get some while you’re here and remember those who missed out when you’re enjoying it.

95 Points – Jeb Dunnuck “Bold and muscular, the 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon Slope comes from the Immortal Estate Vineyard, which sits on the red volcanic soils on the Sonoma side of the Mayacamas mountains. Including 2% Petit Verdot and pouring an opaque black, potent, and layered aromas lift from the glass, with menthol, cassis, toasted cedar, and vanilla. Fleshy and very full-bodied, its velvety sweet tannins and plummy fruit coat the palate, with fresh acidity and a long, toasty finish. A seductive wine, it will take time to lose some of its baby fat and reveal its more savory complexity. Drink 2025-2040.”