Silencieux means quiet, but there’s absolutely nothing silent about Venge’s Cabernet Silencieux, other than it could leave you speechless when you try it. It’s made by Kirk Venge, whom you might recognize from high-scoring Janzen and Bacio Divino wines, as well as several other cult brands. Kirk made it in a larger-than-life style that’s deep, inky, and highly-extracted. Of course, at under fifty bucks, you might want to keep Silencieux about it until you get your case… 

 

Silencieux was given a voice from the winery’s Estate Vineyard in Oakville, their Bone Ash Vineyard in Calistoga, and includes fruit from Rentaria’s Oakville 88, Kenefick Ranch, and Star in Rutherford.  

 

Kirk created it using a 100% gravity-flow method and a state-of-the-art Pellenc optical sorter, which sorts the fruit berry-by-berry, leaving you with what Kirk calls his fruit caviar. The wine spends around 30 days on the skins extracting color and then aged 18 months in barrel. 

 

Retails at: $60