Michel Rolland, Pomerol vintner and consultant to many of the world's top wineries, teamed with Washington State wine visionary Allen Shoup to produce this limited release wine.
With its intense color and inviting aromas of dark berries, licorice, baking spice and a hint of smoke, the Pedestal is a bold wine that leaves a lasting impression. Dark fruit flavors integrated with sweetness from the barrel and richness from the tannins come together seamlessly, lingering across a structured mid-palate and lengthy finish.
Winemaking: Hand-harvested grapes were double-sorted to remove green material that might impart harsh tannins, then most of the lots were cold soaked to build richness and flavor before undergoing whole-berry fermentation in 55L upright French wood tanks. This, combined with gentle pump-overs throughout fermentation, enhanced the wine’s color, texture and mouthfeel. The finished wine was aged 22 months in 85% new French oak barrels.
Review:
"I loved the 2014 Pedestal Merlot and it’s 81% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Sauvignon, 2% Malbec and 2% Petit Verdot. It offers a downright voluptuous and incredibly sexy style in its ripe black currants, toasted spice, chocolate and licorice aromas and flavors. Broad, expansive, layered and pleasure bent, with ripe tannin, it's a knockout Merlot that's going to have 10-15 years of drinkability. - Jeb Dunnuck"
- Robert Parker's Wine Advocate (Issue #231, June 2017), 95 pts
Pernot Belicard Puligny Montrachet Premier Cru Perrieres is made from 100 percent Chardonnay.
The grapes come from Puligny Montrachet, from a small parcel of 1.28 acre.
The wine offers an intense and expressive nose of white flowers and stone fruits. A precise and elegant palate, beautiful concentration and a stony mineral character that echoes the typical Puligny Montrachet terroir. Citrus and orchard fruit flavors, a fresh and long finish.
Pair with lobster Soufflé. Grilled mullet fish with hazelnut biscuits and asparagus, Turbot Filet with vegetables …
Waypoint Lowrey Vineyard Homestead Cabernet Sauvignon is made from 100 percent Cabernet Sauvignon.
We are pleased to bring you for the first time a stunning vineyard, planted high above the valley floor between Rutherford and Pritchard Hill by the Bettinellis, the Lowrey Vineyard. The Homestead piece faces the old 19th century home of the land’s first resident, one Mister Lowrey. The rare hillside site bends slightly downward to give a perfect exposure, and the tight spacing creates tension and concentration in the wine. It is ripe, airy, and medium-full. Extremely expressive terroir is on full display and gorgeous black cherries, cedar, and fine grain tannins create a new Napa Cabernet experience you’ve probably never had before.
Review:
A chewy grip of leather, tobacco and black currant highlight this robust, full-bodied red. Structured and cohesive, it retains an enduring richness of vanilla and oak amidst more complex elements of graphite and crushed rock. Enjoy from 2028–2035.
-Wine Enthusiast 93 Points
We are delighted to offer our first Beckstoffer Georges III bottling in many years. The spectacular vineyard site with its back to the Silverado Trail is the historic site of the grand old BV masterpieces produced for most of the last century. It is as pure an expression of Napa Valley terroir as is available anywhere, from anyone. Ripe and round black fruits, spice, blueberry, and cedar, and cigar box aromas are echoed on the palate and balanced by a preternatural lift from natural acidity and a swell of earth notes. A stunning achievement.
Review:
Thick in sage brush, dried herb and earth, this wine is powerfully built and unabashedly ripe. Dark black fruit, mocha and graphite notes arise along the thick, intense palate, leading to finishing touches of slate and iron. Cellaring will help to tame the tannins; enjoy from 2028–2035.
-Cellar Selection Wine Enthusiast 94 Points
Ziata Meteor Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon is made from 100 percent Cabernet Sauvignon.
Bold and intense, this Cabernet Sauvignon from the Meteor Vineyard in Coombsville is full-bodied and berry-driven, with rich spice undertones and a firm structure.
After 20 years of marketing Napa Valley and its wines, Karen Cakebread launched her own project in 2008 with two major goals in mind: to create beautifully structured wines that reflect the vineyards from which they come, and to be involved in every aspect of making the wines.Karen started ZIATA, named in honor of her mother, Mary Annunziata, in 2008 with three varietals: Cabernet Franc, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir, which she chose for their food-friendly qualities. She hired Anne Vawter, a protégée of Heidi Barrett, as winemaker and sourced grapes from sustainable sources, working closely with the grape growers through the growing season, knowing that efforts made in the vineyard would create better wine than those manipulated in the cellar. Jennifer Williams : I find winemaking to be both an art and a trade—you learn by doing and working the vineyards, ensuring the fruit is the best it can be long before it’s picked is at least half the work of the winemaker.
Argot Napa Cabernet Sauvignon Sugarloaf Vineyard is made from 100 percent Cabernet Sauvignon.
Sugarloaf’s terroir continues to impress with its expression of classically-styled Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignons — impeccably pure black and red fruit character; broad, rich, perfectly ripe tannins; classic Napa Valley notes of cigar leaf, eucalyptus, and freshly-tilled earth; and definitive complexities of clove, all-spice and bay leaf. Having assessed past vintages with a few years of age, we have come to greatly value the significant reward Sugarloaf delivers after a few years in the cellar.
From Block 6, an acre of fiercely steep, ferociously rocky hillside, located in Napa’s far south-eastern foothills, deeply affected by the cooling influences of San Pablo Bay. One of the latest harvests in all of Napa Valley each vintage. Mother Nature was kind to this site in 2019, being our most bountiful year here ever. With perfect set, and vines displaying great health, this normally stingy hillside delivered superlative quality, without restraint of yield. After a slow start in the Spring, 2019’s particularly warm September and October played beautifully to the vineyard’s strengths, and delivered a classic Halloween-time harvest.
Review:
"It is not often that you see a 100% Cabernet Sauvignon coming from this rising star, cooler-climate vineyard in south Napa. This wine comes exclusively from the low-yielding, steep, rocky "Block 6." Deep purple-black in color, the 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon Sugarloaf Vineyard needs a little coaxing to reveal wonderfully pure scents of blackcurrant cordial, juicy blueberries and ripe blackberries, plus suggestions of iris bulb, dark chocolate, molten licorice and cedar chest. The big, rich, seductive, full-on full-bodied palate is laden with ripe, energetic black berry layers, framed by firm, ripe, grainy tannins and seamless freshness, finishing long and perfumed. A stunning, true-blue Napa blockbuster with its own very evocative signature, this comes highly recommended! 175 cases were made. - Lisa Perrotti-Brown"
- Robert Parker's Wine Advocate (November 2021), 97+ pts
Silver Oak Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon is made from 95.2% Cabernet Sauvignon, 2.5% Cabernet Franc, 1.9% Merlot, 0.4% Petit Verdot
The Silver Oak Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2019 has notes of red cherry, raspberry, blackberry, iris, vanilla and clove. Ruby in color, this elegant wine has great acidity and lift on the mid-palate. Black currant and warm baking spices linger with a deep and fruity finish. It will provide drinking pleasure through 2047 given proper cellaring.
Review:
Silver Oak's 2020 releases of Napa and Alexander Valley Cabernets are downright impressive. Tasted four years after the fires, in September of 2024 at the Alexander Valley winery, neither wine showed any sign of the hardened tannic structure or overwrought fruit often associated with the vintage. Instead, these wines remain true to Silver Oak’s signature style, with blackcurrant, fig, and plum fruits layered with white pepper, sweet cedar, and coriander spice. Medium-bodied, with sculpted tannins that persist through the lengthy finish, the Alexander Valley Cabernet in particular retains all the hallmarks of a balanced, inviting, and vibrant Silver Oak red.
-Decanter 94 Points
Truly gorgeous, fruity, velvety and enjoyable for a full-bodied cabernet. It is rich in blueberries, cherry cream, black cherries and raspberries on the palate, with very smooth, layered tannins and a soothing mouthfeel. So easy to drink now, but it will age well, too.
-James Suckling 94 Points
Ancien Pinot Noir is 100% Pinot Noir.
The Mink Vineyard is located next door to the winery, in the Coombsville Viticultural Area of Napa Valley. Open to the same morning fogs and afternoon breezes that cool Carneros to the west, Coombsville is consistently one of the coolest pockets in Napa. Mink sits inside a small “bowl”, allowing cooler air to settle during the evenings, and making Mink’s mesoclimate a couple degrees cooler, even, than the surrounding hills. But the real secret to Mink’s explosive flavors, smooth, mouth-coating minerality, comes from the soil. Underneath is a layer of compressed volcanic ash, called tufa. The tufa drains the topsoil, storing moisture in its porous structure. The vines are able, with some work, to grow roots into the tufa layer, accessing moisture during the long, dry growing season.
The Mink Pinot Noir exhibits bright and refreshing notes of pomegranate, cherry, and fresh herbs. It gradually opens to deeper and darker berry fruit, blueberry and plum. This vintage is on the more structured side of the spectrum and will continue to evolve over time. Its enchanting mouthwatering minerality invite sip after sip together with bite after bite. A lively wine at release but it will continue to improve over the next 4 - 7 years and can age well beyond a decade as shown by its 20+ year track record.
Review:
"Ripe in flavor and luxurious in texture, this wine is difficult to put down. It is saturated in black cherry, black currant and black fig while staying light on the palate. It's a wonderful indulgence to enjoy by itself or with a roast pheasant or duck breast. — Jim GORDON"
- Wine Enthusiast (April 1st 2024), 95 pts