Impenetrable black staining ruby with a narrow pink edge. Gear lube, dragon fruit, tartare and minty earth swelter under ridiculous concentrations of muddled black berries, banana and red dust.

This is my first Napa cab from this producer, and it def is a charmer, taking all the beauty I have experienced in the grenache, and cranking it up into the ethereal echelons of premium Napa Cab. There is a good chance you haven’t heard of this small producer, but if you regularly seek out and drink the finest cabs Napa has to offer–and I know a BUNCH of you do–find some of this. Constantly evolving and taking gorgeous turns with each breath, it is not something you pop-n-pour or rush through.

In the mouth, a file of acid attacks your tongue mid-palate, a pleasing turn of events after surmising what will follow the gaudy bouquet. Supple and stupidly rich on entry, it unleashes this weapon only after you have been sedated with cherry pie and affogato and then BAM! the onslaught of achingly dry bounty etches everything in its reach with a core of chaparral, madrone, and jagged soil, impossibly maintaining the steady beat of sweet, rich fruit in the background. It all continues to grow from there: the fruit into tight blood-orange and cola liqueur, and the backbone into tannin massive enough to matter, but barely tall enough to see over the still-throbbing fruit. They both live long, adulterous lives hand-in-hand in the impossibly-long finish.

This wine is an absolute bargain in terms of what it delivers in relation to Napa cabs double-and-triple this price.

2015 CHIRON WINES Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 14.8

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