2018 Luce Brunello di Montalcino

2018 Luce Brunello di Montalcino

with No Comment $100 and overBrunelloBrunelloItalyKevin VogtTuscany

Luce

Brunello di Montalcino
Montalcino 2018

2018 Luce Brunello di Montalcino

In 1980, Brunello di Montalcino became Italy’s inaugural wine to receive the prestigious DOCG designation, solidifying its position as the crown jewel of Montalcino’s winemaking tradition. Nestled within Tuscany’s rolling hills, this enchanting village, where vineyards intertwine with ancient olive groves, boasts a unique microclimate that nurtures exceptional viticulture. Montalcino’s harmonious blend of landscape and heritage yields some of the world’s most celebrated wines.

At Tenuta Luce, each facet of the winemaking process is approached with profound respect for the land, the vineyards, and the artisans who bring it to life. The 2018 Luce Brunello di Montalcino embodies this dedication. Blessed by a temperate summer devoid of excessive rain or scorching heat, the grapes achieved optimal phenolic ripeness, developing layers of complexity. Following fermentation in cement tanks, the wine matured in Slavonian oak barrels, resulting in a luxuriously smooth red that encapsulates the richness and elegance of Montalcino.

Luce’s 2018 vintage offers a bold and captivating expression of the year, characterized by its “beautiful texture and balance,” as commended by James Suckling, a renowned Italian wine critic.

Luce
Brunello di Montalcino
Montalcino 2018
Retails at: $150

Your Price: $110

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“A finely structured and focused Brunello with a complex array of cherries, blackberries, dried roses, bark, licorice and hints of praline. Iodine and oyster shells, too. Medium-to full-bodied with firm, very fine tannins. Beautiful texture and balance. Remains fresh and fine until the end. Try in 2025.”

96 Points

2021 Ehlers Estate Cabernet Sauvignon Jean Leducq St. Helena

2021 Ehlers Estate Cabernet Sauvignon Jean Leducq St. Helena

with No Comment $100 and overCabernet SauvignonKevin VogtNapaSt. HelenaUSA

EHLERS ESTATE

CABERNET SAUVIGNON
JEAN LEDUCQ
ST. HELENA 2021

2021 Ehlers Estate Cabernet Sauvignon Jean Leducq St. Helena

Established in 1886, Ehlers Estate, located in one of Napa’s most elite neighborhoods, crafts beautiful wines reminiscent of an older Napa Valley style marked by robust structure, balance, and a palpable sense of place. The historic estate and stone winery were established in the late 1800s by Bernard Ehlers and purchased by the Leducq family in 1987, also the founders of the Leducq Foundation for Cardiovascular Research.

Mike Wolf, one of the leading viticulture experts in Napa Valley, whose past and present clients include To Kalon, Scarecrow, and Vine Hill Ranch, manages the vineyard. The Jean Leducq Cabernet Sauvignon comes from a single block on the estate and pays tribute to founder Jean Leducq’s legacy and strong work ethic.

The 2021 is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, and though young, it is powerfully seductive on the first sip and takes your palate on a rollercoaster ride of flavor complexity, ending in a long, smooth finish with a lasting impression.

EHLERS ESTATE
CABERNET SAUVIGNON
JEAN LEDUCQ
ST. HELENA 2021

Your Price: $125

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“The Ehlers Estate 2021 Leducq Cabernet Sauvignon has incredible depth and opens with aromas of volcanic rocks, petrichor, bergamot, boysenberry, melted chocolate, and cigar box. On the palate, the wine has flavors of black cherry, blackberry, baking spices, and dusty minerality. The wine has a robust flavor intensity with a long finish that carries on and on with a silky texture. This wine is outstanding now and will improve with a few years of age if you can stand to hold onto it that long.”

97 Points

2018 Blankiet Prince Of Hearts Proprietary Red Napa Valley

2018 Blankiet Prince Of Hearts Proprietary Red Napa Valley

with No Comment $100 and overKevin VogtNapaProprietary RedUSAYountville

BLANKIET

PRINCE OF HEARTS 
PROPRIETARY RED
NAPA VALLEY 2018

2018 Blankiet Prince Of Hearts Proprietary Red Napa Valley

Blankiet Estate was established in 1996 after Claude and Katherine Blankiet seized the opportunity to acquire an untouched hillside parcel behind Dominus’ Napanook vineyard in Yountville. The location boasts a cooler-climate terroir compared to other areas in Napa Valley, thanks to its eastward orientation, featuring radiant sunny mornings and refreshing, shaded afternoons, preserving the natural acidity and resulting in impeccably balanced, concentrated fruit.

The Prince of Hearts features a Bordeaux-style blend composed of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Petit Verdot, referred to by Antonio Galloni and Robert Parker as one of Napa Valley’s top “Super-Seconds,” listed in the same category as Screaming Eagle’s “Second Flight” and Harlan’s “The Maiden.” 

All estate fruit, the 2018 release epitomizes the glorious vintage as it’s beginning to show off some seriously sophisticated character and super-premium fruit quality. The wine is showing so good right now; it’ll make you feel like royalty when you taste it. 

BLANKIET
PRINCE OF HEARTS 
PROPRIETARY RED
NAPA VALLEY 2018

Your Price: $125

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“Checking in as close to an even split of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, with around 1% each of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot, the 2018 Prince Of Hearts Red offers a stunning, Bordeaux-like nose of red and black currants, new leather, lead pencil, graphite, and bouquet garni. With medium to full-bodied richness, a seamless, elegant texture, classy background oak, and a great finish, this head turner has plenty of richness, yet it’s the balance, purity, and texture that keep you coming back to the glass. Bravo!”

97 Points

2019 The Mascot Proprietary Red Napa Valley

2019 The Mascot Proprietary Red Napa Valley

with No Comment $100 and overKevin VogtNapaProprietary RedUSA

THE MASCOT

PROPRIETARY RED
NAPA VALLEY 2019

2019 The Mascot Proprietary Red Napa Valley

The Mascot shares the hallmarks of Napa Valley’s most elite wines, such as meticulous farming, high-profile winemaking, and pedigreed grapes, offering an introduction to Napa’s most distinguished Cabernet Sauvignons. 

Emerging from distinct hillside vineyards, specifically from the comparatively younger vines of BOND, Harlan Estate, and Promontory, The Mascot lucidly reveals its unrivaled pedigree with each swirl of the glass while offering insight into the vintage and evolution of its parent properties.

While the winery doesn’t specify exact grape varietal percentages in each vintage, The Mascot has historically been 85-95% Cabernet Sauvignon, followed by Cabernet Franc, Merlot, and Petite Verdot. Crafted in an intensely captivating style that’s gloriously supple, penetrating, and harmoniously balanced, only a few very select retail partners can offer this wine, and we are delighted to be one of them!

THE MASCOT
PROPRIETARY RED
NAPA VALLEY 2019

Your Price: $180

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“…The wine is beautifully supple with a broadly fanned aromatic spectrum and an effortless depth of fruit. From a center point on the palate, the 2019 vintage undulates outward in all directions. Gentle, velvety swells pause and fold in on themselves, their liquid whorls of refined tannin and gratifying acidity gliding across the surface of smooth curves before retreating gradually to reveal, on the finish, the burnished dimensions beneath.”

2018 Taupenot-Merme Charmes Chambertin Grand Cru Red Burgundy

2018 Taupenot-Merme Charmes Chambertin Grand Cru Red Burgundy

with No Comment $100 and overBurgandyFranceKevin VogtRed Burgandy

TAUPENOT-MERME

CHARMES CHAMBERTIN 2018
GRAND CRU RED BURGUNDY

2018 Taupenot-Merme Charmes Chambertin Grand Cru Red Burgundy
Romain Taupenot descends from a long line of vignerons dating back to the 17th century. Today, he produces nineteen different wines across seventeen appellations in the Côte de Nuits and Côte de Beaune, with a significant portion of fruit sourced from Premier Cru and Grand Cru sites. Old vines represent most of Domaine Taupenot-Merme’s holdings, with new plantings propagated from cuttings from each site’s best vines. 
 
The prestigious village of Gevrey-Chambertin produces some of the world’s most famous and sought-after wines, and the 68-acre Charmes-Chambertin vineyard was officially granted Grand Cru status in 1937.
 
Romain considers himself a hands-off winemaker as he prioritizes his work in the vineyard and uses minimalistic approaches in the cellar. The fruit for the 2018 Charmes-Chambertin was hand-harvested, de-stemmed, and cold-soaked before fermentation in stainless steel, then aged in French oak. The wine shows beautifully now and will gain ethereal complexity from extended aging time in the bottle.
 
TAUPENOT-MERME
CHARMES CHAMBERTIN 2018
GRAND CRU RED BURGUNDY
Retails at: $345
 
 
 
“The 2018 Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru has a seductive, plush nose laden with pure red cherries, cranberry and wild strawberry fruit. Nicely integrated new oak, quite luxurious in style. The palate is well balanced with fine tannins, crisp acidity (perhaps acidified?) With just a little shrillness towards the finish. It does improve with aeration and develops a pleasing harmony. Tasted blind…”
93 Points
2019 Ehlers Estate 1886 Cabernet Sauvignon St. Helena

2019 Ehlers Estate 1886 Cabernet Sauvignon St. Helena

with No Comment $100 and overCabernet SauvignonKevin VogtNapaSt. HelenaUSA

EHLERS ESTATE

1886 CABERNET SAUVIGNON
ST. HELENA 2019

2019 Ehlers Estate 1886 Cabernet Sauvignon St. Helena
Established in 1886, Ehlers Estate, located in one of Napa’s most elite neighborhoods, sits in the narrowest part of the Valley, where moderating sea breezes ensure a slow and even ripening. Mike Wolf, one of the leading viticulture experts in Napa Valley, whose past and present clients include To Kalon, Scarecrow, and Vine Hill Ranch, manages the vineyard. 
 
Ehlers winemaker Laura Díaz Muñoz carefully tastes through every barrel and selects the best for the winery’s flagship wine, 1886, which honors the completion year of the historic stone winery. The 2019 release is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon from a near-perfect vintage and was aged for 22 months in French oak and is a prime example of the Estate vineyards and the dedication of Ehlers’ passionate team. 
 
Flanked by vineyards like AXR and nearby Vineyard 29 Aida, whose top Cabs soar North of $250, Ehlers 1886 stands out as a value for the neighborhood, delivering outrageous quality. 
 
EHLERS ESTATE
1886 CABERNET SAUVIGNON
ST. HELENA 2019
 
 
 
“This rich, concentrated and relaxed wine wraps supersoft tannins around plump black cherries, blueberries and dark chocolate. It is saturated with fruit and subtle oak spices that taste complex and luxurious. Enjoyable to drink now through at least 2030.”
95 Points
2019 Mt. Brave Cabernet Sauvignon Mt. Veeder

2019 Mt. Brave Cabernet Sauvignon Mt. Veeder

with No Comment $100 and overCabernet SauvignonKevin VogtMt VeederNapaUSA

MT. BRAVE

CABERNET SAUVIGNON
MT. VEEDER 2019

2019 Mt. Brave Cabernet Sauvignon Mt. Veeder
Chris Carpenter is a master at harnessing the power of mountain-grown fruit, gaining a complete understanding of the challenging viticulture crafting legendary vintages at Lokoya and Cardinale. Chris began Mt. Brave on the slopes of Mount Veeder in 2007, unable to resist the temptation to produce wines from a different mountainside with thin, rocky soils and 30-degree slopes at varying angles. This unique topography creates several different microclimates that enjoy temperatures ten to fifteen degrees cooler than the Valley floor.
 
The eastward-facing Mt. Brave vineyard receives a significant maritime influence from the chilly San Pablo Bay, resulting in fruit with tiny, concentrated berries full of flavor and structural components, allowing the wine to age for several years. 
 
The 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon is powerful and focused with fine tannins and fresh acidity that will aid in graceful maturation, slowly revealing the wine’s true nature over time.
 
MT. BRAVE
CABERNET SAUVIGNON
MT. VEEDER 2019
 
 
 
“Showcasing the lovely freshness of high-elevation Mt Veeder grapes. Vivid boysenberry and mulberry fruits give way to mountain herbs, dusty minerals and rich toasty cedar. A compact wine revealing black-fruited flavours and savoury herbal nuances alongside sculpted tannins that are pixelated and mouthcoating. An impressively long finish of iron shavings, baked agave and dried chaparral.”
97 Points
2018 The Mascot Proprietary Red Napa Valley

2018 The Mascot Proprietary Red Napa Valley

with No Comment $100 and overKevin VogtNapaProprietary RedUSA

THE MASCOT

PROPRIETARY RED
NAPA VALLEY 2018

2018 The Mascot Proprietary Red Napa Valley
The Mascot shares the hallmarks of Napa Valley’s most elite wines, such as meticulous farming, high-profile winemaking, and pedigreed grapes, offering an introduction to Napa’s most distinguished Cabernet Sauvignons. Emerging from distinct hillside vineyards, specifically from the comparatively younger vines of BOND, Harlan Estate, and Promontory, The Mascot lucidly reveals its unrivaled pedigree with each swirl of the glass while offering insight into the vintage and evolution of its parent properties.
 
While the winery doesn’t specify exact grape varietal percentages in each vintage, The Mascot has historically been 85-95% Cabernet Sauvignon, followed by Cabernet Franc, Merlot, and Petite Verdot. Crafted in an intensely captivating style that’s gloriously supple, penetrating, and harmoniously balanced, only a few very select retailers have the opportunity to offer this wine, and we are delighted to be one of them!
 
THE MASCOT
PROPRIETARY RED
NAPA VALLEY 2018
 
 
 
“…The fruit of the young vines maintained a measured balance that gave the team little indication that harvest was imminent. Fog and temperate days followed in September, when relying more on instinct than empirical cues we began to pick. This judgment as well as the gentle nature of the season is confirmed in the subtle, ethereal power of the vintage, which reveals itself first in the deep, brooding aromas of dark fruit, black tea, and herbal notes. The texture expands around a lifted structure, as powdery tannins gently resolve. This diffused, enigmatic softness is anchored on the mid-palate by a gratifying density, which prepares the senses for a flourish of hidden energy and vivid detail that illuminates the finish.”
2021 Per-Us Lyla Napa Valley

2021 Per-Us Lyla Napa Valley

with No Comment $100 and overCabernet SauvignonKevin VogtNapaOakvilleUSA

PER•US

LYLA 2021
NAPA VALLEY

2021 Per-Us Lyla Napa Valley
PER·US Winery produces super high-quality, high-scoring boutique wines from some of Napa Valley’s most desired vineyards under the guidance of rockstar winemaker Russell Bevan. Bevan is one of just a handful of winemakers that have earned multiple 100-Point scores from some of the world’s most well-known critics for his intensely flavorful hedonistic wines with harmonious balance.
 
Lyla is a blend based on equal parts Cabernet Franc from the Sugarloaf Mountain Vineyard and Cabernet Sauvignon from the Tench Vineyard in Oakville’s center, directly across from Screaming Eagle. The 2021 growing season was longer than average, and there were no heat spikes near harvest which gave the Cabernet Franc a lively acidity that brightened up the blend and is a match made in heaven when paired with hearty dishes.
 
PER•US
LYLA 2021
NAPA VALLEY
 
 
 
“Our Lyla blends have some magical qualities to them. In 2021, the growing season was so incredibly long, and there was no heat near harvest. We were able to maintain the acid levels in our Cabernet Franc which makes this wine incredibly vibrant and lively. If we have ever crafted a wine that is perfect for cuisine, this is it. The natural cool climate of the franc’s high acid profile is incredibly complementary to rich, hearty dishes. It screams for braised short ribs, or beef Bourguignon. It has the linear power to cut through almost any dish while showcasing it’s beautiful blue and red fruits. This wine is all about bound up energy.” 
2013 Knights Bridge Cabernet Sauvignon Knights Valley

2013 Knights Bridge Cabernet Sauvignon Knights Valley

with No Comment $100 and overCabernet SauvignonKevin VogtKnight's ValleyUSA

KNIGHTS BRIDGE

CABERNET SAUVIGNON
KNIGHTS VALLEY 2013

2013 Knights Bridge Cabernet Sauvignon Knights Valley
Founded in 2006, Knights Bridge Winery sits in a sweet spot near the Knights Valley AVA’s western edge, not far from Peter Michael Winery. The area just North of Calistoga is known for its warm days, cool nights, and mineral-rich volcanic soils. 
 
The Knights Bridge Estate Vineyard rises from 300 to 900 feet of elevation on the rugged slopes of the Mayacamas mountain range, exposed to cool winds from the Pacific Ocean, aiding in structure, flavor development, and retaining fresh acidity.
 
Douglas Danielak (owner/winemaker of Pont Neuf) joined the founding team as the winemaker, using his knowledge and experience from earning a BS in Viticulture and Enology from UC Davis and the Lycee Agricole et Viticole de Beaune in Burgundy. 2013 was an excellent vintage for the region, and this wine has aged gracefully for just under a decade bringing forth subtle spices and soft tannins with a long, supple finish.
 
KNIGHTS BRIDGE
CABERNET SAUVIGNON
KNIGHTS VALLEY 2013
 
 
 
“Coming from a practically perfect growing season, the Knights Bridge 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon opens with aromas of violets, red and black currants, black cherry, allspice, cigar box, and cedar. On the palate, the wine has smooth, supple tannins and flavors of cassis, black olive, baking spices, black tea leaves, and cocoa powder. The concentration of flavor is impressive and holds on throughout the lengthy finish. This wine is divine and drinking beautifully right now, but it still possesses aging capability.”
95 Points