
Like a lot of grand adventures, the Cornerstone story starts with a conversation between friends over a glass of wine. The result was Cornerstone Cellars, and two decades later, they are making wines with constancy and classic varietal attributes that manage to be distinctively approachable (and delicious). Their DNA combines old school Napa Valley ease with a welcoming Southern approach to entertaining, and the result is classic Napa wines that make any table and any dinner a little more welcoming and celebratory.
Cornerstone Cellars started with two friends, Michael Dragutsky and David Sloas, and five tons of Howell Mountain Cab grapes purchased from Randy Dunn. That’s commitment…and Cornerstone Cellars was born. They custom crushed their first vintage in 1991, a classic Napa Valley cab that won awards and got noticed in the still smallish Napa Valley wine community.
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Masseto 2020 is a wine that has embraced all the key traits of the vintage. It displays excellent concentration both in terms of colour and bouquet. They remain persistent and vivid in the glass without subsiding over time. The potency of this wine returns on the palate with beautiful length and balsamic flavours. The integrity of the tannin reveals the ageing potential typical of Masseto.
Review:
Intense and full on the nose, fragrant with ripe black fruit, floral aspects and soft spicing. Round and full on the palate, it's rich and muscular yet tight and neatly coiled with a liquorice, graphite, pepper, cinnamon and clove tang that gives this immediate but enjoyable spice. Feels well worked, juicy with high acidity that lifts the palate and gives freshness and brightness alongside really quite mouthwatering strawberry and raspberry fruit with such captivating dried floral and bitter orange rind aspects. Tannins are super fine and so well integrated yet this maintains a grip and hold from the very beginning through to a long and sustained finish. Nuanced and complex, still packing a punch in terms of power, but this feels sophisticated, suave, purposeful and controlled. Not elegant, this is more of a caged animal with it's full potential yet to be unveiled, but it is classy. A truly delicious wine with so much purity and sense of place. Malolactic fermentation in 100% new barroques, with each batch kept separate for the first 12 months of ageing before being blended and returned to barriques for another year, totaling 24 months. The wine was then aged for a further 12 months in bottle before being released.
-Decanter 100 Points
Mordoree Chateauneuf du Pape Rouge Dame Voyageuse Grenache 90 % Mourvèdre 4% Syrah 4 % Counoise 1% Vaccarese 1% .
La Dame Voyageuse - "the traveling lady" - is a more approachable version of the CDP La Reine des Bois. It is meant to be enjoyed early, compared to her sister cuvee which is made for the long run.
Dark ruby red, almost opaque. Aromas of red fruits (strawberry, cherry), violet and liquorice. Nice, fresh body; smooth tannins; long fruity finish.
Color : deep ruby red, opaque.
Aromas : red fruits, changing to touches of leather, black truffles and coffee.
Palate : fat, concentrated and full flavored with a very long liquoriced and fruity finish.
Ageing potential : 6 to 10 years.
Surface : 5 Ha.
Yield : 30 Hl./Ha.
Vineyard age: 60 Years
Terroir : Clay-siliceous on pebble stones
Harvest : by hand
Vinification : 100 % destemmed, long 30 days maceration with a maximum of 34° C temperature.
Estate bottled