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Today’s wine offering is a wonderful Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. We always feature great wines, but when one really stands out, we issue one of these special alerts.

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Mission Codename: Divisible by none

Operative: Agent Red

Objective: Decode a secret message to unravel the secret of Prime Cellars Napa Cab

Mission Status: Accomplished

Current Winery: Prime Cellars

Wine Subject: 2005 District 4 Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley

Winemaker: Ted Henry

Backgrounder:

The fruit for this unique and tasty Cabernet Sauvignon hails from some of the most sought after spots throughout Napa Valley. Sourced from vineyards in Oakville, Coombsville and the northern end of the Napa Valley – vineyards that have such prestigious neighbors as Opus One, Cardinale, and Far Niente – the fruit is exquisite, and highly prized. Agent Red recently met with Ted Henry, winemaker for Prime Cellars. Read Red’s mission report and tasting notes, below, to find out if he learned the secret of Ted’s great wine

Wine Spies Tasting Profile:

Look – Dark deep garnet with a dark but clear core and deep ruby edges. Slow clusters of thick legs run slowly down the glass when swirled.

Smell – A cheerful rush of fresh cherry leads the charge, followed by more earthen aromas of subtle tobacco, dusky chocolate and spice, which mingle with a delightful plum, currant and subtle freshly picked salad herbs

Feel – Smooth and round at first, then slightly dry and then tangy with a touch of soft spice on the mid palate. This medium-bodied wine has firm tannins and good acidity

Taste – Bold fruit leads off this wine with flavors of darkest plums, black cherries and blackberries. Toasted cedar, smoky blueberry, burned blackberry tart (pastry) and subtle tobacco are nicely layered. Toward the rear of the palate, a certain tartness appears with flavors of bright cherry and tart plum

Finish – Long and clean with flavors that linger with its tart fruit and earthen components

Conclusion – This 2005 Cab shows great character and fun fruit. Ready to drink now, we are certain that you should cellar a few bottles for the next few years for the big payoff with this wine. This is another great example of fantastic winemaking from a small producer. If you want to see how David (Prime Cellars) fares against Goliath (hint: he wins against some of the Goliath-est), sample this pretty wine.

A comment about the low-alcohol content of this wine: It is interesting to note that this wine has a relatively low ABV as compared with its Napa Cab brethren. This makes for an interesting drinking experience, one where the fruit is allowed to shine through, rather than be engulfed by the alcohol.

Mission Report:

“Listen, Red. I’ll explain it one more time.”

Agent White was losing his patience with me, but I needed his help. I had gotten a coded message earlier in the day, and judging by the wine stain on the paper, I knew that it was important.

You see, I had the stain analyzed by the lab, and it came back with some pretty stunning, but also contradictory information; Analysis suggested that the wine was certainly a Napa Cabernet Sauvignon, but it also revealed that the vineyard source – actually sources – for the wine were likely from nearly all corners of the Napa Valley. To make matters even more intriguing, the grapes came from vineyards which likely neighbored some very famous Napa Valley hallmarks.

“Okay, White, sorry to be so slow. Listen, you know that I am a visual person. Use the whiteboard and spell it out for me.”

Agent Whited sighed and said, “You know what a Prime number is. That’s a good start. Your note there makes it obvious that we are searching for the gap between the primes. Therein, we should find the answer – or at least new clues.”

He then wrote this on the board:

Let pn denote the nth prime number (i.e. p1 = 2, p2 = 3, etc.). The gap gn between the consecutive primes pn and pn + 1 is the difference between them, i.e. gn = pn + 1 − pn.

“You see,” asked Agent White.

“Umm, not quite,” I replied.

He snatched the paper from my hand and huffed away to his desk. Less than a minute later, he returned.

“These are latitude and longitude coordinates, along with a message that says, ‘drink me’. Any idea who this is from?”

“No,” I answered. “But I am going to find out right now.”

With that, I thanked White, left HQ, programmed my GPS, and was on my way. GPS showed my trip to be just under 45 minutes.

On arrival, I spotted only an electrical pole. About 6 feet up the pole, a small arrow-shaped placard showed “3-5-7” in reflective red letters. The letter pointed off toward a wooded area. Good thing I wore my rain boots.

After a short hike, I spotted a small metal box. Stenciled across the lid was a string of number, all primes. I examined the closure for telltales or trip mechanisms. It was clean. Carefully, I opened the lid. Inside, sitting on a red satin cushion, were two bottles of wine – the word Prime printed on the label.

A note inside read:

“Agent Red: Congratulations! You’ve passed our test. We hope that you and your Operatives enjoy our District 4 Cab!”

It was signed, “Ted and Lisa Henry”.

Well, the wine was great, and I hope that you enjoy it as much as I did, dear Operative.