WHEN IN ROME gotta check out the local offerings and the hotel resty was pouring the full line-up from Javelina. Brilliant ruby in the glass, nose not going burnt or too cloying like some other wines I have had from this area. Thin and focused, the 90+ bling-bros of Napa and Paso Robles will absolutely hate this wine, but those of us who appreciate lean, food-wonderful wines will find comfort in its shocking acidity and tight cherry plum.
Shockingly BDX-like for large swaths of the Western wine-producing regions. It reminds me of 70’s and 80’s Napa old-school stalwarts in the way it plies reasonably ripe fruit against angsty dryness and tannin on 11. The warm-weather situations you imagine in your head going in do not materialize to Sierra Foothills or Temecula levels. Sure, that top-end nutmeg has a viscosity to it. And the tight cherry has a walnut veneer of chubbiness leading to tannin on 11. I guessed it a full point below the stated 14-5, another point in it’s favor.
A quite impressive cab, and I’m anxious to try some other offerings from this area.
2019 JAVELINA LEAP Cabernet Sauvignon Hassayampa Arizona 14.5
Stephen McConnell 