Many longtime Dedalus fans are, by now, also fans of Bruce Neyers and his wines. Vintage after vintage, the bottlings from Bruce’s Conn Valley Ranch in the heart of the Napa Valley, are a testament to what many of us consider Napa’s real potential. These wines aren’t fruit monsters. They don’t blow your face off [...read more]

Cabernet Sauvignon is the grape that rockets to the front of the line whenever cork-dorks start talking about the American wine scene. Arguably, Cab may be the grape responsible for more highs and lows, more joy and disappointment, and more great wine and miserable plonk than any other. The Napa Valley’s entire reputation has been [...read more]

The ’05 Ramey Claret is a study in Voluptuous winemaking. It’s rich, velvety texture is marked by blackberry, cherry, tobacco and cassis – with a beautiful nose of cherry, clove, rose-water, rubber and cracked black pepper. I love to pile a bottle or tow of the Claret into a decanter when I’m entertaining. It’s a [...read more]

The 2005 Ramey Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon is big, dense and brooding. It’s got a jam and tar profile with a nose and mouth full of black licorice, black cherry pie, sweet black currant, pipe tobacco, mocha, smoke and vanilla. The wines is layered with fine, sweet tannins and nice acidity. It should drink well over [...read more]

The ’03 Carpenter Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon is a complicated marksman. A wine that somehow, after taking your senses on a long detour through the blackberry bush, the tobacco plantation, and the coffee shop, still manages to hit its mark – it’s a distinct, perfectly balanced, ripe Cab. I decanted a bottle of this last night [...read more]

I love me some mountain fruit! Nickel & Nickel’s Vogt Vineyard is perched up on top Howell Mountain – a  place revered among Cab lovers. The appellation sits above the Napa fog line and enjoys (from a winemaker’s perspective, anyway) dramatic daily temperature swings – warm during the day, and nice and chilly at night. [...read more]

There’s quite a bit of Cabernet Sauvignon being bottled in California’s Napa Valley. Driven by the success of cult bottlings like Screaming Eagle and Harlan, the only thing growing faster than the region’s renown might be the prices Napa Cabs are fetching around the world. These increase are not necessarily marked by an astronomical increase [...read more]