2017 Lewis Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, California

Product Info

WINEMAKER NOTES:

Very short yields in 2017 from a small collection of hillside and bench-land vineyards in Calistoga, Rutherford, and Oak Knoll created a wine of Napoleonic stature – compact and powerful with a winning character. A battalion of ripe black fruit and blueberry compote is infused with sultry spices, charcuterie, clove, and dark chocolate aromas. Expansive on entry, the broad-reaching palate develops a tailing regiment with crushed rock, toffee, and polished tannins.

TASTING NOTES:

Ripe and winey in feel, with a wave of warm black currant and fig compote flavors rolling through, inlaid with cocoa, sweet tobacco and dark licorice notes. This moves slowly but assuredly. Drink now through 2032.

- Wine Spectator, 93 pts.

Lastly, the 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve has a big, rich, mineral-laced style that's going to need bottle age. Black fruits, charcoal, graphite, tobacco, and scorched earth notes give way to a medium to full-bodied, concentrated, structured 2017 that does well in the vintage. The grippy tannins let you know it's a 2017, yet I do like the overall concentration here. Give bottles 3-4 years in the cellar, and it should keep nicely over the following decade. 

- Jeb Dunnuck, 92 pts.