This wine is ridiculously good and I’m crying a little. My least-favorite vintage of the past decade and one of my most-favorite AVA’s for cab in California and an inexpensive hi-production winery I am the BIGGEST fan of… so… where’s it at? Thick staining brick in the glass, a nose sultry of velvet theatre seats and worn leather but thick with glorious dense berry, glycerin-y and concentrated, an elevation of funk rather shocking in its chubby, buttery layers of blackberry. Off a bit in bouquet, feeling a bit rotund while casting copious chalk and briar against sweet maceration.
An astonishing 12 on the palate, cherubic and heavenly-fruited, the dank berry an absolute MEAL on the tongue. Dry rasp solidifies the appeal: a burnished black walnut grate overwhelming syrupy concentration throughout. In perfect stasis in terms of age: this wine is going NOWHERE quickly and even at this price-point, I’m glad there’s more in the cellar. This will be one of those wines I will bring to the table a decade from now and dorks will be wowed. I think it has the guts to presevere for the long-term and perfectly-stored could probably go another 20. One of those cheap wines made so perfectly, science defies, but the balance of all things contained speaks to near-timelessness. There’s enough sugar, enough rich berry, enough structure–though heated–to probably cut through any fruit-fade predicted. No one can argue against this wine. Unless you’re a fool. If you know the history–especially recent–this is a sad bottle of wine. Snap them up for maybe that very reason. The direction this winery has gone is downright depressing. One of the last real wineries.
2012 CLOS DU BOIS ‘Sonoma Reserve’ Cabernet Sauvignon Alexander Valley Sonoma Co. 14.5
Stephen McConnell 