Mayo Family Winery
2007 Cabernet Sauvignon
Cabernet Sauvignon
California: Napa Valley
Mission Briefing
Pass the Mayo!
Classic Napa Valley, today’s 2007 Mayo Family Winery Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon absolutely astounded our tasting panel. Everyone on the panel went bonkers for this extraordinary wine, leading us issue a very highly recommended rating.
Our Operatives have been buying up 2007 vintage California reds, in record numbers. It is easy to see why; Robert Parker himself issued an ultra-high 96 Point Rating. So far, the 2007s we’ve been tasting are remarkable. The only bad news is that they are beginning to become more scarce. Stock up, while you can.
Today’s wine is a dark, rich, bold and wonderfully balanced wine that fans of big Napa Cabs will just adore!
Tasting Profile
| Look: | Opaque with gorgeous crimson hues. Coloration is evenly concentrated from core to edge. |
|---|---|
| Smell: | Big and bold with dark fruit and spice that leap from the glass. This wine starts with bold black raspberry, wild strawberry, olallieberry and plum that transitions to eucalyptus, black pepper and tobacco. |
| Taste: | Delicious, concentrated and ripe with dark flavors of blackberry, dewberry, stewed plum and dark black tea leaf tannin. Graphite, black pepper, subtle black olive, subtle mint and cedar follow. |
| Finish: | Ultra long and rich with fruit and earthy spice components that dwindle slowly. Then, something unique happens: flavors seem to snap back for another long, lingering round. |
| Pairing: | Leg of lamb with rosemary and garlic would be an excellent choice. |
What the Winery Says
From the outstanding 2007 vintage, this Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon was produced from grapes grown in two separate vineyards. One, a hillside vineyard, delivered grapes with outstanding tannins and intense fruit characteristics. The second vineyard is located on the floor of the Napa Valley where the grapes were richly flavored with lesser amounts of tannin. The result is a superbly balanced, intensely flavored wine that you’ll recognize as classically Napa. Blackberry and chocolate notes are combined with a kiss of oak over a medium bodied structure.
Wine Specs
Vintage: 2007
Varietal: Cabernet Sauvignon
Appellation: Napa Valley
Alcohol: 14.4%
About the Winery
We are a small family owned winery located in the heart of the Sonoma Valley. We believe that single vineyard wines make for the most interesting and satisfying drinking. Since the early 1990’s we’ve constantly looked for those vineyards that provide a great match between terroir and varietal. The result is an array of small batch, single-vineyard wines that meet our criteria. Whether the vineyard is in Sonoma or Napa, or our own estate, our pledge to you is that we will produce a collection of wines that are always interesting, always compelling and always delicious.
Winemaker Michel Berthoud
Born and raised in Sonoma Valley, Michel oversees all the winemaking at Mayo Family and works closely with the winery’s many grower partners. Ask him how he became interested in making wine, and he’ll tell you that he was ‘born in a vat.’
Formerly Winemaker for Arrowood Vineyards just down the road, Michel joined the Mayo Family Winery just prior to the start of the 2004 harvest. The many awards and accolades his Arrowood wines won and the following he created for himself were a result of the lessons he learned from Dick Arrowood and his own well-developed sense that winemaking is an artisan process that demands a feel for the land as well as an artist’s well honed technique.
Vineyard Notes
Laurel Hill Vineyard is in the Sonoma Valley appellation. Planted on the Mayo family estate at the foot of Sonoma Mountain, this vineyard is the source for grapes that are used to produce the Mayo Family Estate Chardonnay. In 2000 we planted two additional acres of Pinot Noir. The vineyard itself incorporates a variety of terrain including a sunnier hillside plateau and a valley element. The vineyard is exposed to sunlight from mid morning though the early evening with the hillside receiving longer exposure.
The old vine Ricci Vineyard sits on a 10-acre block south of the town of Healdsburg on Limerick Lane, next to the Collins vineyard in the Russian River Valley appellation. It is the backbone of the winery’s zinfandel commitment. The vineyard produces grapes that consistently create a distinctive wine that has developed a following among zin fanatics.