2016 Whitehall Lane Cabernet Sauvignon

Winemaker Notes; The 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon is exquisitely balanced with excellent fruit concentration. On the nose, this wine offers black cherries, red raspberries, blueberry compote, graphite, toasted brioche, and a touch of licorice. The palate offers plush but concentrated tannins, mixed berry jam, dried black cherries, chocolate, vanilla, toasted hazelnuts, and cedar with a finish that softens and lingers.

JS91 James Suckling;This attractive Napa cab has a smooth array of rich and ripe blackberries and blue plums with powdery, soft and fluid tannins. Drink or hold.

Cabernet Sauvignon is probably the most famous red wine grape variety on Earth. It is rivaled in this regard only by its Bordeaux stablemate Merlot, and its opposite number in Burgundy, Pinot Noir. From its origins in Bordeaux, Cabernet has successfully spread to almost every winegrowing country in the world. It is now the key grape variety in many first-rate New World wine regions, most notably Napa Valley, Coonawarra and Maipo Valley. Wherever they come from, Cabernet Sauvignon wines always seem to demonstrate a handful of common character traits: deep color, good tannin structure, moderate acidity and aromas of blackcurrant, tomato leaf, dark spices and cedarwood.

Napa Valley, an hour’s drive north of San Francisco, California, is the most famous and prestigious wine region anywhere in the New World. Although a number of grape varieties are grown in the valley’s vineyards, the area is particularly known for its Cabernet Sauvignon. The classic “Napa Cab”, the archetypal Napa Valley wine, is a rich, oak-aged red with aromas of blackcurrant, boysenberry, liquorice, vanilla and smoky, bittersweet chocolate.

Whitehall Lane Winery is located off Highway 29 in the Rutherford appellation of Napa Valley, California. The estate has over 140 acres (56 hectares) of vines across Napa Valley and Sonoma, spread out between eight different vineyards. Rich wines made from Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot are Whitehall Lane’s specialty although the estate has produced a range of labels.