Maroon Wines
2010 Single Vineyard Calistoga Appellation Cabernet Sauvignon
Cabernet Sauvignon •Single Vineyard
Napa Valley: Calistoga
Mission Briefing
Best yet
Today we are thrilled to be featuring a great Napa Cabernet Sauvignon from our old friends at Maroon Wines. Over the last 7 years, we’ve featured wines from this winery nearly a dozen times. Always, the wines are fantastic. Today’s wine is even better!
Today’s Maroon Wines 2010 Single Vineyard Calistoga Appellation Cabernet Sauvignon is a lush, elegant and big Cabernet Sauvignon that shows off the unique terroir of the Calistoga Appellation. The Calistoga AVA is situated at the northern end of the Napa Valley. The soils here are almost exclusively volcanic and the temperature swings are enormous, with 100 degree days cooled by the breezes that come off of the Russian River Valley AVA to the west. In fact, Calistoga enjoys the highest diurnal temperature variation in the entire Napa Valley - which places wonderful stress on the grapes that grow here.
When James Laube, senior editor of Wine Spectator Magazine, awarded the 2010 Napa Valley Cabernet vintage a decades-high 98 point score, it became our mission to seek out the best ’10s that we could find. Once we find them, they are scrutinized by our tasting panel. If these wines make it onto our site, you can be assured of their superlative quality.
Tasting Profile
| Look: | Deep, foreboding scarlet at its core, only slowly transitioning to a lighter ruby fringe. At the very center of the glass, the wine is nearly perfectly opaque. |
|---|---|
| Smell: | Robust, with deep notes of dark blackberry, black cherry, and black currant, trailed by sweet tobacco, fresh cedarwood shavings, espresso bean, black pepper, sage, and a hint of clove. |
| Taste: | Lush and elegant, with black plum and boysenberry delicately laid overtop berry bramble, sandalwood cigar box, saddle leather, clove, anise, freshly cracked black peppercorn, and a subtle note of mint. |
| Finish: | Long, lasting, and beautifully balanced, this wine is well structured, with velvety tannins and lovely acidity. As the fruit slowly fades, a slight pomegranate herbal tea note is left at the very end. |
| Pairing: | A perfectly seared filet mignon, served with freshly picked mushrooms and a rosemary herbal butter. |
What the Winery Says
This wine has dark fruit aromas and also a beam of spicy fruit on the nose. The texture is medium bodied with well balanced acidity and a medium length finish. With the nice balanced acidity, this wine should age gracefully for the next 5+ years.
- Winemaker
- Paul Maroon
- Appellation
- Calistoga, Napa Valley, California
- Vineyard
- 100% Single Vineyard
- Fruit Variety
- 100% Cabernet Sauvignon
- ABV
- 13.8%
About the Winery
Maroon Wines was founded by Paul Maroon in 2008. The focus of Maroon is usually on single varietal, single vineyard wines and their philosophy is to introduce as little winemaking manipulation as possible from the vineyard to the bottle.
Along with their “estate” vineyard, Maroon sources from a variety of premium vineyards in the valley and hand crafts a number of very small production wines from vineyard sources that may change from year to year. These wines are often only made available to their wine club and a select few others, like The Wine Spies.
The focus of Maroon is usually on single varietal, single vineyard wines. Winemaker Paul Maroon’s philosophy is to introduce as little winemaking manipulation as possible from the vineyard to the bottle.
Winemaker Paul Maroon
Paul Maroon became interested in winemaking over 40 years ago while as a young man helping his uncle make wine in Pennsylvania. After earning a college degree on the East Coast he came to California for his MBA. In the back of his mind he always knew that, for him, Napa Valley was the place to be.
Paul visited as often as possible throughout the years and finally, in 2000, looking to return to this agricultural roots, he realized his dream and relocated to the Napa Valley. He purchased property just north of the city of Napa and there he began his life as a vintner and has been growing grapes and making fine wines ever since.
For ten years Paul had a lucrative contract with Joseph Phelps to sell them the Cabernet Sauvignon from his Coombsville vineyard. These grapes were used in their Insignia blend. Before the contract ended, Paul made under two barrels of wine for himself and realized the quality of fruit his vineyard could achieve as a single varietal, single vineyard wine. As a result, his first commercial vintage of Maroon Wines came two years later in 2008.