Palmaz Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon 2016

Alana L rated this wine as 93/100 with the following review:

Described by many as a ‘rockstar vintage’ nearing that of 2013, 2016 was, regardless of whether you agree with that moniker or not, an amazing year for Napa Cabernet (with hot and dry weather and an absence of extremes or heat spikes) and this stunning wine tends to confirm that. Not an everyday tasting by any means and definitely a ‘special occasion wine’ at this price point ($165 USD) we had the pleasure of tasting the 2016 Palmaz Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon at the ‘A Taste of Napa’ event organized by the Napa Valley Vintners in Old Montreal earlier this week.

Wine tasting with vintners brings absolute poetry to the tasting and attending the pre-tasting private lunch was a great way to hear the vintner’s stories and wine musings. Palmaz Vineyards is a family-owned and operated estate that dates back to the 1860s and is known as much for its practices of using gravity-flow and gravity-finish as for its vast subterranean winery exemplifying the Bauhaus architecture and design principle "form follows function". Considered an engineering marvel, their underground cave is an 18-story maze of tunnels and domes carved into rock at the base of Napa’s Mount George, providing it with not only all the benefits of gravity-flow (amongst others minimizing the turbulence that damages wines’ molecular structure) winemaking but also the natural temperature control of a cave.

This signature Cabernet Sauvignon (actually a blend of 93.5% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3.4 % Cabernet Franc, 2.1% Petit Verdot and 1% Malbec) is a well-balanced rich wine, deep red in colour, with stunning body and minerality, smooth and elegant tannins, a robust mouthfeel and notes of berries, fig, spice and vanilla. Impeccable.

From the officials tasting notes we adored these words: ‘freshly fired creme brûlée and toasted fruit on the palate with flavours of vanilla and salted caramel... An everlasting finish that holds steadfast, begging to be remembered - satisfied only by the indulgence of a second glass’.

Avec plaisir!