Random Ridge
2007 Cabernets
Red Blend •Random Ridge Estate Vineyard
California: Mount Veeder (Napa)
Mission Briefing
Random Ratios
We are very excited about today’s incredible BOGO (Buy One - Get One) from our dear friends at Random Ridge Winery. Today’s exquisite Cabernet blend is made even more exciting with today’s BOGO offering. For every bottle that you purchase at our regular price, you can buy another one at just $0.07.
Today’s 2007 Random Ridge Mount Veeder Cabernets is a fantastic update to the prior vintages that we have shown here. Made from Bill Hawley’s finest Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc (two of Agent Red’s favorite varietals), this 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Cabernet Franc blend is an elegant, structured, food-fantastic wine.
Rich aromatics provide the first clues to what is to come on the palate, but that first sip still knocks your socks off! Very flavorful but still elegant, this wine is wonderfully balanced and truly delicious.
We love Random Ridge wines; they are always true delights. Winemaker Bill Hawley (aka “Agent Hombre”) isn’t so bad, himself. If you love great reds from the best vintage in a decade (Robert Parker gave the vintage an off the charts 96 point rating), we offer you today’s wine with our heartiest recommendation.
Tasting Profile
| Look: | Dark red cherry juice with deeply concentrated color, from edge to core. Spin the wine and it settles quickly. As it settles, it leaves behind tall, chubby wine-colored tears that march slowly down the glass. |
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| Smell: | Bold and sweet and gently spiced, this wine exudes tons of black cherry, blueberry, blackberry jam, bramble and plum, layered over brown spice, toasty oak and a hint of tomato stem. As the wine opens, fennel and red flowers appear. |
| Taste: | Expansive, softly weighty and instantly mouth-coating, this wine has an energetic acidity, fine-grained tannins and a fine minerality that all add up to an elegant complexity. Flavors are vibrant and sweet, with layers of lush fruit, starting with spiced black cherry and red plum. Just beneath these sit black raspberry, black pepper, brown spice, dark dried fall leaves and flinty minerals. |
| Finish: | Very long, with a spice component that carries the fruit a long way. As flavors gently tail off, black pepper and flint emerge, along with a mineral-rich dryness. |
| Pairing: | Pair this wine with your favorite red meat dish, or enjoy it all on its own. We enjoyed ours with a nice rare prime rib, with plenty of horseradish. It was absolutely divine! |
What the Winery Says
Cabernets Reserve 2007
- Tasting Notes
- A perfect growing season at Random Ridge with extended hang time led to a leisurely and bountiful harvest of luscious ripe fruit. This bodacious barrel-select reserve wine is dark, extracted, and generous in flavors of plum, spice, licorice, cocoa, cedar, and red currants. 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Cabernet Franc.
- ABV
- 14.2%
About the Winery
Random Ridge produces fine wines from vineyards pioneered by the Hawley family in the Mayacamas mountains of Napa County, California. We produce wines in very limited quantities from vines meticulously maintained to reflect the essence of the soils in which they grow. We are farmers first but will surf anytime anywhere. Our dedication in the vineyards naturally segues into traditional winemaking practices in the cellar. We strive to enable the fruit to develop its inherent Buddha nature to become wine of complexity harmony & passion.
The vineyard’s intense fruit yields a limited production of exceptional wines that are spicy, extracted, and rich. As Bill Hawley says, they are “wines with alti-dude.”
Winemaker/poet/surfer Bill Hawley
Bill began to pioneer Random Ridge in 1980. At the end of a remote fire road at 2400 feet on California’s stunning Mount Veeder, he built a house for his young family with recycled lumber. The next year he cleared and planted a 10-acre vineyard right on the Napa-Sonoma County ridgeline. Today from the home and vineyard the views of Mount Tamalpais and the San Francisco Bay still dazzle the southern horizon and the sun sets over Sonoma Mountain.
From 1982 to 1988, Bill was employed at Carmenet Vineyard as vineyard manager, mentored by the late great Dick Graff. “…as part of my continuing education, Dick arranged for me to travel to Burgundy and Bordeaux for a month in 1986, visiting cutting-edge producers that shaped my wine aesthetic. Then in 1988 Susan and I traveled to New Zealand and I attended the Cool Climate Viticulture Conference, another mind-blowing trip.”
Bill credits his Chalone experience with introducing him to many winemakers that remain great friends.