A fascinating project and even more fascinating wine!
Sheehan makes this for European wine importer Peter Weygandt (who brings in many of our favorite French wines). It’s from one of the most prestigious and historic vineyards in Coombsville, with 38-year-old Cabernet vines (ancient for Napa now). And it’s aged in French oak barrels from Taransaud: the best (and most expensive) there are.
Now with the tiny yields and lavish oak treatment, you might expect a “blockbuster” style of Cabernet. But this is much more old school – more like the finest Napa Cabernets of the 1970s.
Weygandt says:
Sustainable. 100% Cabernet Sauvignon. This Cabernet shows great balance. The fruit shows beautifully with flavors of plum, cassis, black cherry, and boysenberry. The undercurrent to the fruit is a core of spice, earth, and tabacco. The wine is balanced, walking the fine line of tannin and acidity, and offers the structure of an old world wine with the fruit of a new world wine.
For us, it’s not only that this Cabernet comes from the type of material and has the type of treatment normally reserved for $100 wines…it’s the fact that it does so while still prioritizing balance, complexity and restraint.
It’s a real wine.
