Abreu Proprietary Red Las Posadas 2016

Price $600

Points 99

It as a stunning Howell Mountain wine with incredible richness, complexity, and powerful dark fruit flavors, including notes of blackberry, blueberry, cassis, with hints of spice, tobacco, and earthy elements, alongside firm tannins and a very long finish; many critics award it high scores, with some even giving it a perfect 100 points.

The 2016 Las Posadas is a stunning Howell Mountain wine. Inky, rich and hedonistically beautiful, the 2016 is simply magnificent.

Crème de cassis, chocolate, menthol, licorice, lavender, cloves, mint, graphite and crushed rocks are all amped up in the glass.

Unctuous, creamy and super-expressive, the Posadas captures the opulence of Howell Mountain.

It is simply magnificent in every way.

California Cult Wines 2016 BOND Melbury Napa Valley USA

Price $700

Points 97

Rich, elegant, complex, and exceptional aging potential, often scoring it in the high 90s with some even awarding perfect scores; notes commonly include blackcurrant, cassis, spice, toasted oak, and a seamless integration of flavors, making it considered a top-tier Napa Valley wine with remarkable longevity.

Smoke, licorice, wild cherries, vanilla, wild cherries, wet forest and mushroom notes demand your attention.

On the palate, the wine is rich, lush, supple, and full-bodied.

With its silky tannins you also enjoy espresso, dark cocoa and ripe fruits bursting with sweetness in the finish.

Bryant Family Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon 2019

Price $900

Points 97

In the mouth the wine is full-bodied, rich, ripe, concentrated with astonishing depth, the ripe powdery tannins lending a seductive mouthfeel.

Drinking well now, although this is clearly for the long haul.

More backward and concentrated, the 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon reveals a dense purple/plum hue as well as a stunning nose of blackcurrants, unsmoked tobacco, lead pencil, and dried herbs.

It’s rich and full-bodied on the palate, has a wonderfully rounded, textured mouthfeel, loads of Cabernet character, ripe tannins, and a great finish.

This is pure class in Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. It has some up-front charm (as do most 2019s) yet will benefit from 4-5 years of bottle age and cruise for 20-25 years if stored properly.

California Cult Wines 2019 Colgin Cellars IX Estate Red

Price $700

Points 97

One of the more backward, mineral-laced, age-worthy wines in the vintage, the 2019 Cabernet IX Estate comes from the estate property on Pritchard Hill, which is unquestionably one of the greatest terroirs in the Valley.

Incredibly pure crème de cassis, smoked tobacco, spicy oak, graphite, chocolate, and crushed stone are just some of the nuances here.

Hitting the palate with full-bodied richness, it has a stacked mid-palate, building tannins, utterly flawless balance, and the class to benefit from 5-7 years of bottle age and cruise for 50 years or so.

2019 Dalla Valle Vineyards Maya

Price $600

Points 96

One of the finest wines in the vintage is the 2019 Maya Proprietary Red Wine, and red wine doesn’t get any better.

The usual blend of 60% Cabernet Sauvignon and 40% Cabernet Franc, its deep purple hue is followed by an incredible bouquet of blackcurrants, tobacco, dark chocolate, and crushed stone, which turns more floral, pretty, and complex with time in the glass.

Full-bodied on the palate, it marries a rare sense of elegance and finesse with incredible intensity

California Cult Wines 2019 Harlan Estate Napa Valley USA

Price $1800

Points 97

Fresh and approachable, with the elegance and structural integrity to last four or five decades, possibly longer.

On the nose, beautiful upfront savouriness reveals cassis notes, cigar box and black olive followed by ripe, fresh black and blue fruit. Mesmerizing depth of flavors, with beautiful creamy black and red berries and a deep vein of earthy minerality.

Tannins are angular with impressive grip, while acids are firm and refreshing.

The finish is offers nuanced black currants, dark chocolate, enticing tobacco and cedar.

2019 Hundred Acre ‘Ark Vineyard’ Cabernet Sauvignon

Price $700

Points 99

An outstanding and profoundly layered 100% Cabernet Sauvignon from Jayson Woodbridge.

Medium- to full-bodied Ark vineyard Cabernet are several exceptional reasons, which begin with complex aromatics of pure black cherry, blackberry, and blueberry skin, layered with nuances of cigar box, sandalwood, and vanillin.

Finely-knit firm tannins build exemplary structure, balanced by crisp, blood-orange acid tension.

It is a wine of very real intention to showcase the remarkable mineral superstructure beneath the ground of Ark, which is like a vertical layer cake of ancient beachfronts of red soils, black obsidian rock, and volcanic pebbles.

‘It’s a hundred million years of time sequences’, says Woodbridge, and the wine displays itself in equally complex layers of minerality, and the lingering effect is mesmerizing and just draws you into the glass.

Just 4.8 hectares of Cabernet Sauvignon vines are planted on this 18.2 hectare property.

California Cult Wines 2019 Schrader Cellars To Kalon Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon

Price $425

Points 98

2019 Schrader is a monumental tower of super-ripe fruit power. Deeply hued and dense, the wine offers prodigious amounts of blackberries, black currants, and ripe plums infused with notes of chocolate, smoked earth, walnut skins, and crushed rocks.

Alluring wafts of candied violets weave through the profile.

This pure clone 4 Cabernet is an immense wine with firm structure, well-woven tannins, and luxurious, rich texture; it is the epitome of iron fist in a velvet glove.

Wonderfully balanced with a long-lasting, polished finish, the wine will continue to refine for years to come.”

Another historic site and another opulent wine from Thomas Rivers Brown.

Cabernet clone 337 delivers a fresh, high-toned, juicy red teeming with black fruit, black pepper and toasty cedar.

Lush dark fruit is round and rich on the palate, framed by ultra-fine, satiny tannins and tangy blood orange acidity.

2016 Screaming Eagle Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley USA

Price $3,900

Points 97

A blend of 79% Cabernet Sauvignon, 13% Merlot, and 8% Cabernet Franc. 

This was pop and pour and is, of course, young and really needs time or a decant. 

That said, it is just an incredible wine!  Inky purple in color, shimmering bright and opaque. 

The nose has cassis, cedar, blueberries, chocolate and slight spice. 

Full bodied.  Lovely velvety yet sinewy texture.  Medium tannins.  On the palate, this is tight. 

Cassis, black cherries, vanilla, and slight chocolate and char. 

Deep. 

Tight layers slowly unwind in the glass. 

Long finish. 

This needs another decade in a cellar and should drink well for another thirty or forty after that.

California Cult Wines 2016 Sloan Proprietary Red

Price $800

Points 97

Complex, powerful, and excellent structure, highlight its rich black fruit flavors, spice notes, and velvety tannins, often describe it as a full-bodied Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon blend with great aging potential.

This is a barrel sample blended of 66% Cabernet Sauvignon, 23% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Franc and 3% Petit Verdot, to be bottled the first week of February 2019.

Deep garnet-purple colored, the 2016 Proprietary Red opens with fragrant notions of candied violets, chocolate box and baking spices with a core of blackcurrant cordial, preserved plums and blackberry compote with touches of garrigue and menthol.

Full-bodied, rich and packed with black fruits sparked by tons of cinnamon and cloves accents, it has a firm, velvety-textured frame and great freshness, finishing with epic persistence.