Avennia Sestina Red Blend is made from 77% Cabernet Sauvignon, 17% Merlot, 6% Cabernet Franc.
The Sestina is a poetic form from Medieval France. Just as a contemporary poet can use an old form like the Sestina to express modern ideas, we use the traditional Bordeaux blend to make modern wines that express Washington fruit. Sestina is our vision for an old vine blend where the focus is on structure, balance, and complexity. This wine is designed for the cellar, but is enjoyable now.
Sestina: This wine is a blockbuster, with black currant, black raspberry, saddle leather, freshly tilled earth, vanilla, and violet on the nose. Exceedingly rich and balanced on the palate, with great poise and structure for long aging. The finish echoes with fresh black fruits, minerally touches, and floral notes.
Review:
The 2020 Sestina showed beautifully, with lots of ripe black fruits, tobacco, and spring flower notes in a medium to full-bodied, fresh, focused, elegant style. It has fine tannins and a great finish and should drink nicely right out of the gate. The tannins here are terrific.
Jeb Dunnuck 94-96 Points
Avennia Sestina Red Blend is made from 76% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Merlot, 9% Cabernet Franc.
The Sestina is a poetic form from Medieval France. Just as a contemporary poet can use an old form like the Sestina to express modern ideas, we use the traditional Bordeaux blend to make modern wines that express Washington fruit. Sestina is our vision for an old vine blend where the focus is on structure, balance, and complexity. This wine is designed for the cellar, but is enjoyable now.
Sestina: This wine is a blockbuster, with black currant, black raspberry, saddle leather, freshly tilled earth, vanilla, and violet on the nose. Exceedingly rich and balanced on the palate, with great poise and structure for long aging. The finish echoes with fresh black fruits, minerally touches, and floral notes.
Review:
The 2021 ‘Sestina’ is a gorgeous blend of 76% Cabernet Sauvignon with smaller parts Merlot and Cabernet Franc. Needing about 30 minutes in the decanter to fully unwind, this yields beautiful black florals that mingle well with wet stone, Black Forest Cake and suggestions of huckleberry with garrigue notes. The palate is soft and refined with a silky texture and beautiful sense of elegance and weight. This is seamless throughout the drinking experience, loaded with black fruit flavors with dark chocolate shavings and suggestions of underbrush. Refined tannins frame this stunning heavyhitter of a Cabernet that is already drinking beautifully now at the three year mark. Savor this beauty now and over the next fifteen to twenty years.
-Owen Bargreen 96 Points
"The book end to the Right Bank-inspired Valery, this is the Left Bank-inspired wine which blends 76% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Merlot and 9% Cabernet Franc. Sourced from old vine Bacchus, Dionysus, Red Willow and DuBrul grapes, it’s given the rock star treatment with 21 months in 50% new French oak. I love the flavors of the well-chosen barrels, which match those spicy/toasty notes to fruit with both power and palate presence. Beautifully structured, powerful yet restrained, with ripe black fruits that trail into powdery tannins, this is a special wine with a long life ahead."
- Paul Gregutt 97 Points
Betz Family Cabernet Sauvignon Pere de Famille is 88% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Petit Verdot and 2% Merlot
Review:
"This is a wine for the ages. Aromas of thyme, the blackest of cherries, licorice, bay leaf and spice are followed by outright delicious, plump fruit flavors. There's a whole lot of primary fruit, with ample structure to hang it all on, along with plenty of depth and intensity. The finish is near endless. It flat-out impresses, with remarkable intensity. Best from 2028 to 2038. - SEAN P. SULLIVAN."
- Wine Enthusiast (September 2021), 95 pts
"A firm, polished red with aromas of blackberry, iodine, tobacco leaf, cocoa and cedar. It’s medium-to full-bodied with firm, chewy tannins. Structured, layered and focused. Lots going on, with a long finish. Try from 2023."
- James Suckling (May 2021), 95 pts
"Incorporating 10% Petit Verdot and 2% Merlot from a mix of sites in the Columbia Valley, the 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Père De Famille reveals a healthy ruby/purple hue to go with beautiful cassis fruits interwoven with notions of dried rose petals, violets, cedary spice, and chalky minerality. Medium to full-bodied, reasonably well concentrated, yet elegant and beautifully balanced, it opens up nicely with time in the glass and will benefit from 2-4 years of bottle age and keep for 20 years."
- Jeb Dunnuck (May 2021), 95 pts
All older vintage wines have been purchased from a single collectors cellar. Pictures can be requested before shipment.
Review:
“The medium-bodied palate is so tightly wound at this youthful stage, slowly revealing layer upon layer of fragrant black and red fruits with loads of mineral sparks, supported by beautifully fine-grained yet firm tannins and seamless acidity, finishing with epic length and a whole firework display of mineral and floral notes. This is gorgeous. ” Lisa Perrotti-Brown, The Wine Independent 100 Points
Clos du Val Estate Cabernet Sauvignon is made from 6% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% Merlot, 5% Malbec and 1% each Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot.
This fresh and vibrant Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon is brimming with aromas of blackberry, mulberry, cassis, and violet. On the palate, bright flavors of cranberry, red plum, cherry, and lavender are intertwined with supple tannins, balanced acidity, and a long, smooth finish.
Review:
"Sleek tannins, guided by sweet earth, slate, purple plum and black olive. Savory notes of fig, toasted cedar, and black tea meld with blackberries. Well structured and impeccably balanced."
-Tasting Panel 96 Points
TYPE: DOCG
GRAPE VARIETY: 100% Sangiovese harvested from the oldest vineyards.
VINIFICATION: Alcoholic fermentation with maceration of the skins (25-30 days) at a controlled temperature and spontaneous malolactic fermentation, both in truncated cone-shaped Slavonian oak vats.
REFINEMENT: In Slavonian oak barrels from 10 to 32 hl for approx. 34-38 months; followed by bottle refinement of at least 6 months.
ON SALE BY:January of the 5th year after the harvest.
NOTE:
Color: intense ruby with garnet reflections.
Perfume: ethereal, of red fruit and vanilla, persistent.
Taste: harmonious, with excellent tannins and structure, very persistent.
Food pairings: roasted red meats, game, mature cheeses.
Review:
A jeweled ruby color, the 2019 Brunello Di Montalcino is forward with licorice spice on the nose and opens to notes of fresh black cherries, pine, and toasted rosemary. Medium to full-bodied, it offers wonderful energy from the start, with balanced, angular structure, ripe tannins, crunchy fresh acidity, and a long finish. Avery well styled Brunello, it will be in its prime in the coming 10-15 years.
-Jeb Dunnuck 95 Points
Aromas of redcurrants and red flowers, followed by a touch of pie crust and sandalwood. Full-bodied with steely and sturdy tannins and vivid acidity. Dried-herb character at the end. Masculine and structured. Hold until 2027.
-James Suckling 95 Points
Bernardins Muscat Beaumes Venise VDN 100% Muscat petits grains (75% Blanc, 25% Red)
Copper/rose hue and ripe soft aromas of orange, spice and flowers. The wine is full bodied with the texture of silk and flavors of orange custard, white peach, pear, apricot, toffee and orange peel.
The vineyards and their terroir are the essence of our wines. This is where everything starts and where we focus our efforts throughout the year. You can’t make great wine without great grapes.
The viticulture is essentially done by hand. Five people work full-time in the vineyards. They are supplemented by seasonal employees who work during bunch thinning and the harvest in order to bring out the very best in our vines. Working by hand and the attention each vine gets are fundamental. Pruning, de-budding, trellising, leaf removal and picking are thus carried out by hand with the utmost care.
We prepare the soil by using good old-fashioned ploughing. Organic compost is made from grape marc (the discarded stalks and skins).
As a way of protecting the plants, we only use phytosanitary products when necessary and within strict guidelines by staggering the treatments appropriately, to minimise the amount of chemicals used. We prefer to use as much as possible manual and organic techniques . Leaving natural grass cover, removing buds and leaves from the vines, preserving biodiversity around the vineyard: olive, almond and cypress trees, wild rosemary and capers.
In the spirit of respecting traditional techniques and the best elements of modern technology, cellar manager Andrew Hall and his winemaker son Romain Hall take family traditions very seriously.
When making our wines, the Muscat de Beaumes de Venise plays a central role and requires great care. After picking the grapes by hand, we press them straightaway to ferment the juice without skins. We don’t add any yeasts and keep the alcoholic fermentation in check by temperature control. Vin Doux Naturel winemaking involves stopping fermentation to preserve the grapes’ natural sweetness. During vinification, we watch the vats day and night and add the fortifying spirit just at the right moment. At this stage, the wine’s final balance is at stake. The wine is then aged in stainless steel tanks for 6 months before bottling.