This is Napa Cabernet made by a Francophile Master of Cabernet the way HE wants to make it.
After making Petrus, Dominus and Silver Oak for his career, Dan is producing Cabernet the way he wants – and it is gorgeous.
Opening with red raspberry coulis, wet tobacco, and sexy sandalwood, the palate is fresh cherries, dried herbs and leather. The tannins are fine grained and refined and you get a very real sense that this wine is alive and has a long way to go.
This wine is a co-ferment of 86% Cab and 14% Petit Verdot. The wine was allowed to ferment with indigenous yeasts. It was aged in thin stave Bordeaux oak barrels, 22% new. It was aged for 17 months, and racked through the heads every 3 months.
221 cases produced.
2018 Complant Cabernet Sauvignon, Mount Veeder, Napa Valley
$85.00
Mount Veeder is home to some of Napa’s finest and most age worthy Cabernet Sauvignons. The terrain is steep, rocky and rugged, and due to its south western location it is the only mountain region in Napa to enjoy the cool breezes and fog of the San Pablo Bay. This effect causes longer ripening times and the fruit tends to be spicy and full of minerality.
If you are wondering about the Beller property, here is the other Cab you can get from them. I told you this was a screaming good deal. Finding good Napa Cab under $100 is getting harder and harder and while some of it is marketing (I’m looking at you, Screaming Eagle), some of it is just base economics. Napa Valley fruit is expensive. Did you know Napa only produces 4% of California wine, and only 0.4% of the wine in the world? When you combine that rarity with high costs of farming, labor, production and taxes it is kind of amazing any wine coming out of Napa is under $100!