2019 Beau Vigne "Reserve" Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon

A blend of 95% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3% Petit Verdot, and 2% Cabernet Franc, the 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon Signature Series Reserve is deep garnet-purple in color. It charges out with pronounced blackcurrant jelly, black cherry preserves, and blueberry pie scents, plus suggestions of menthol, mocha, and fragrant earth. The full-on, full-bodied palate is bursting with rich, seductive black fruits, supported by firm, ripe, grainy tannins, finishing long with mineral notes coming through. (LPB) 95+

Although the Beau Vigne brand lives on in the exceptionally capable hands of super-star winemaker Julien Fayard (who has worked at Lafite Rothschild, Smith Haut Laffite, Purlieu, Atelier Melka, Lail, Gemstone and Dalla Valle Vineyards etc) this bottle of 2019 Reserve Cab is the last of an era when the wines were sourced from the Stag's Ridge Vineyard on Atlas Peak. That high elevation, rocky volcanic terroir was in large part responsible for how the wines gained such huge critical acclaim and adoration among cult Cab collectors. The vineyard was sold and is now home to Seven Apart wines that continue to build on this site's reputation for producing massively powerful mountain grown Cabernet. This wine was harvested, fermented and barreled down by Kirk Venge who was making the Beau Vigne wines at the time of the sale. The wine was then cared for, blended and bottled under the exacting eye of Julien Fayard who is the current winemaker for the Beau Vigne brand. This bottle has everything you'd expect from bigtime mountain Napa Cab. Everything in this wine is turned up to 11. Huge explosive purple and black fruit, creme de cassis, liquored plum, blackberry, boysenberry. Then there's tons of crushed rock and volcanic minerality. Big mouth-coating tannins that saturate every part of your palate. Exotic, sexy oak rounds things out a little and polishes the edges of the tannin, but this is still a big mouthful of muscular Cabernet. Not for the faint hearted, but really shows just how big and bold Napa Cab can be but has plenty enough structure and framework to handle the relentless torrent of fruit.