2016 Galerie Cabernet Sauvignon Latro

2016 Galerie Cabernet Sauvignon Latro

2016 Galerie Cabernet Sauvignon Latro: Made by Laura Diaz (formerly at Lokoya) and coming mostly from valley floor fruit, the 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Pleinair is a sexy, flamboyant beauty that boasts a deep purple color, a huge nose of cassis and blueberry fruits, a complex floral character, full body, and a pure, elegant, yet pleasure-bent style that’s already a joy to drink.

96 Robert Parker: The 2016 Galerie Napa Valley Plenair Cabernet Sauvignon is a dark purple wine with notes of cassis and black fruit with beautiful floral character. Full palate with elegant round tannins and a long finish.

Galerie

Galerie is the first solo exhibition for Winemaker Laura Diaz Munoz, whose sophisticated style and vibrant personality shine through each of the wines. The name “Galerie” honors the winemaker’s role as an artist and highlights the expressive nature of Laura’s work. She embraces New World priorities of making wine approachable, but also borrows classic European winemaking techniques to create the complexity and finesse that have become her signature. Each label in the Galerie collection exhibits a different section of a luminous grapevine watercolor by Malia Pettit, highlighting the individuality of each wine as well as their shared parentage. Using her breath to render the vine’s branches, the artist blew the paint to move it across the page. She punctuated the delicate vine shoots with individual droplets of paint that spattered naturally with their own momentum. This elegant incorporation of physical and human intention captures the essence of Galerie-each label a distinctive expression of nature and the artist’s technique.

Pleinair presents our interpretation of Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. The name refers to the French painters’ method of painting outdoors (en plein air), which developed around the same time as Napa’s first European-style vineyards in the 1800s. Fruit from vineyards with diverse soil types brings complexity and depth to the finished wine, which shows rich black fruit, spice and floral notes with a firm tannin structure and balanced acidity.
Comes from Napa vineyards Atlas Peak, St. Helena, Diamond Mountain and Howell Mountain. Aged 20 months in 53% new French oak and bottled unfined and unfiltered, the wine is a beauty, with notes of loamy soil interwoven with red and blackcurrants, tobacco leaf and forest floor. It is medium to full-bodied, shows excellent purity, a nicely layered mouthfeel and ripe tannins. It should drink well for at least 15 or more years.