WINEMAKER'S NOTES:
The 2018 vintage is 56% Cabernet Franc and 44% Merlot, and would certainly stand with the best of the twenty-one previous vintages. Effusively aromatic, the wine is packed with notes of red raspberry, nutmeg, cumin, licorice, and slow-toasted oak. It is both energetic and rich, with the ripe fruit flavors flowing across the palate and pulling the complex spice notes with it. Aged for twenty months in 100% new French oak barrels and bottled without fining or filtration, the wine is deep and delicious, with the structure and weight that will allow it to age for decades.
Blend: 56% Cabernet Franc, 44% Merlot
TASTING NOTES:
This is such a spectacular showcase of 56% Cabernet Franc and 44% Merlot, both from Hudson Vineyards in Carneros. Spicy in nutmeg and clove, with red and black currant layered throughout, it finishes on accents of cedar, violet and crushed rock. Best from 2028–2038.
- Wine Enthusiast, 95 pts.
A wine that needs a few years of bottle age, the 2018 Red Wine H Block Hudson Vineyards checks in as 56% Cabernet Franc and 44% Merlot and offers a relatively reserved yet potential-laced bouquet of red and black fruits, chocolate, toasted spices, and dried tobacco. These carry to a full-bodied, concentrated, textured wine with plenty of tannins, rock-solid overall balance, and a great finish. It opens up with time in the glass, but the smart money is on hiding bottles for 2-4 years, and it should evolve for 15 years thereafter.
- Jeb Dunnuck, 94 pts.
