This is a brooding, masculine, dark fruit-driven Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa Valley. The first impression shows equal parts complex fruit and truly majestic oak treatment: cedar, dry leather, tobacco, and dust.
Time reveals distinct dark forest fruits—black currant, blackberry, blueberry, raspberry— underpinned by iron filings, dried herbs, violets, and black licorice. After an hour, complexity continues to develop: the nose shows lavender, roasted chestnuts, fir needles and soft brown sugar. The palate shows gravelly volcanic minerals, dark chocolate and lively eucalyptus.
Vineyard Notes
In a warm northern Napa Valley enclave works a renowned ‘grape whisperer’ amongst vines that sit in rocky gravel and clay loam soil. The Frediani Vineyard has grown some of Calistoga’s best grapes for over 100 years.
Handed down through the Frediani family since the beginning of the 20th century, the soils here are some of the most beautiful, rocky golden soils in the Napa Valley. Dry farmed vines, some 110 years old, sit smack in the middle of the valley floor through brutally hot days and chilly nights. The most dramatic daily swing in Napa Valley of all AVAs, these temperatures produce incredibly lush and intense fruit, a recipe for masterpiece wines.