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2009 December Wine Club Premiere Selection
The Oakville AVA of Napa Valley is home to many of California's finest Cabernet Sauvignon-based wines: including Joseph Phelps Bacchus, Dalle Valle, Showket, Rudd and Screaming Eagle. In fact, in a profile of the region that appeared in the October 14, 2004 edition of the Wine Spectator, wine critic Matt Kramer wrote, "…what emerges from this rocky, sun-drenched zone is like no other Cabernet in the world."
It's a special piece of terrior, and one that has treated relative newcomer to the scene, proprietor Elliot Stern, and his Oakville East Exposure Cabernet quite well. He chose a stretch of iron-rich land along the collapsed Vaca Mountain range and a winemaker who knows Oakville fruit like the back of her hand. (Sara Gott formerly made wine at Joseph Phelps.) The grapes are farmed organically and production is kept low: about 500 cases per vintage.
The resulting wine is full of dark berry, plum and cedar notes with chocolaty, fine-grained tannins on the finish. Gary was particularly excited to discover this wine a few years back, and was even more excited that he could offer it to our customers this time around at less than the usual $100+ per bottle! |
