2007 Balcom "Mascaret" Napa Valley Bordeaux Blend (Previously $125)

Here's a very rare opportunity to get your hands on some perfectly aged Napa Cab blends at a deeply discounted price! To be honest, I had never heard of Balcom Family wines before, but a little digging around revealed that these would most certainly be worth checking out. After tasting them, I took everything available! Balcom Family was a small winery that stopped releasing wines after the 2009 vintage. The winemaker for the project was Craig Becker. Craig has an impressive resumé that began with time spent in the hallowed cellars at Robert Mondavi. He also worked just across the road at Opus One. From 1998 to 2003, he was the winemaker at the iconic Spring Mountain Vineyards, proving himself a master of mountain fruit. The 2007 Balcom "Mascaret" Proprietary Red comes from two prestigious vineyards on opposite sides of the Valley—Constant Estate high on Diamond Mountain and Somerston Estate in Napa's eastern hills, where Craig has been the Director of Winemaking since 2006. The wine is drinking superbly; there's still plenty of that boisterous, rich, ripe fruit the 2007 vintage is famed for. Also, some delicious secondary development tones of sweet leather, cedar, and unsmoked cigar. Then there's that powdery grip of the mountain fruit tannins still giving structure under all the exotic '07 fruit some fourteen years later. If you like bigger, richer styles that still have structure, and you like wines with a little bottle age, don't delay. This is a one-time opportunity of limited quantities.