A Napa Valley classic. Interestingly, its best reviews are British. Like this 97-point one (best ever and above many Pritchard Hills) from Decanter:
All of the Chappellet red wines in 2023 are simply dazzling. They capture the classic hallmarks of a cool vintage—blue-fruit fireworks mingling with black fruit and spice, and a towering tannic structure built for long-term cellaring. The Pritchard Hill and Hideaway wines are standouts, and in a photo finish, this Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon serves as a true standard-bearer and benchmark for the region. It’s got everything you could want and more: blue and black fruit, graphite and iron, violets, and fragrant toasty oak spices. Over the coming years, these elements will mellow and knit together into a beautifully complex, fragrant, and flavourful wine. For now, it’s bold, ripe, and seductively pure – so alluring you’ll struggle to put the glass down. Nuances of dark roasted coffee and dark chocolate weave fine threads of character through a bed of super-fine-grained tannins. Totally captivating.
And this even more descriptive one from Jancis Robinson:
Saturated purple colour. Thick and rich – if this were hair, it would be lustrous. Baked black fruit, well integrated with sweet oak spice. It’s forthright and sweet-fruited on the palate but with furry tannin and high acid giving three dimensions. Long aniseed and menthol persistence. It’s big but in proportion. Supercharged, very Napa.
Also best ever and an “Editors’ Choice” at $95 for the Wine Enthusiast:
Robust aromas of roasted cherry, spiced plum, espresso, and flowers lift the nose of this Cabernet Sauvignon. The palate expresses a lively personality with rounded tannin, juicy acid, and flavors of concentrated berry coulis, black plum skin, pithy orange peel, and violets that blossom along the finish. Delicious now, this will age effortlessly for at least a decade.
And the Tasting Panel:
This vintage marks the first official release for winemaker Ry Richards, who joined Chappellet in 2006, and has been working under the guidance of VP of Winemaking Phillip Corallo-Titus along with Director of Vineyard Operations Andrew Opatz. Taking the reins to craft wines from the famous Pritchard Hill Vineyard comes with much responsibility, and this wine shows its reputable style. Violets are submerged in dark chocolate cake, with plum and boysenberry rising to the top. Beaming with a royal presence, its silky tannins are polished with sunshine and sweet earth.
This one is the real thing. And again, at the lowest price anywhere.
