The 2012 La Joie, which is a blend of 76% Cabernet, 12% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Franc and 4% Petit Verdot, blew me away. A profound effort, with 55% of it coming from Hillsides in Alexander Valley, 31% from Knights Valley and the balance from Chalk Hill, the wine shows great minerality, oodles of cr?me de cassis fruit, incense, licorice, crushed rock, and a provocative full-throttle mouthfeel. A wine of great intensity, purity and equilibrium, this definitely begs for 4-7 years of bottle aging and should drink well for at least 30+ years.

Composed of 68% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Franc and the rest Petit Verdot and Malbec, the 2007's fruit came from four sources, Alexander Valley Mountain Estate, Knight's Valley, Chalk Hill and Bennett Valley. This utterly perfect, flawless wine reveals great intensity along with a wonderful perfume of roasted coffee, blueberries, blackberries, spring flowers, forest floor and crushed rock. Full-bodied and viscous without being heavy, the wine possesses admirable precision as well as good acidity and balance. This stunning wine is developing beautifully. It contains 14.4% alcohol (one of the highest amounts) and a final pH of 3.64. It should last another 30 years.

The 2007s appear to be the greatest wines Vérité has yet produced under the leadership of Jess Jackson and his winemaking guru, Bordelais Pierre Seillan. These extraordinary wines, built for the long term (much like top Bordeaux), are fashioned from some of the finest fruit sources Jess Jackson cuvées from the beginning, and have followed their aging process (which is glacially slow). The 2007 La Joie is pure perfection. A Pauillac-like blend of 68% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Franc, and the rest Petit Verdot and Malbec, it possesses a cedary, fruitcake, black currant, tobacco leaf, blackberry, and graphite-scented bouquet. Layers of crème de cassis and blackberry liqueur intermixed with scorched earth, truffle, and toasty characteristics are spectacular as are the multidimensional mouthfeel, fabulous purity, and a 60-second finish. This 2007 will be accessible in 6-8 years, and should drink well for 35-50+ years thereafter. Only those with cold cellars and enormous patience should purchase this modern day legend. There are nearly 2,000 cases of La Joie.

The myth perpetrated by Old World wine proponents is that California wines don't age. Those critics need to taste Verité, because these wines are aging far slower than I imagined. The 2005 La Joie (67% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Merlot, 12% Cabernet Franc, 7% Petit Verdot and 2% Malbec) tips the scales at 14.7% alcohol. It received the same 18 months in 100% new oak. It is interesting that Pierre Seillan said that he thought the high-elevation vineyards of Sonoma that go into Verité (self-serving, os course) are his greatest sites in the world for Bordeaux varietals. But remember - he's from Bordeaux! This multidimensional wine, which enjoyed a 4-5 day cool, pre-fermentation maceration, has a provocative bouquet of blackberry, cassis, new saddle leather, Christmas fruitcake, graphite and high-quality unsmoked cigar tobacco. It is profound, extremely full-bodied and massive in the mouth, but not heavy or astringent in any way. This is perfection in a glass, and a tribute to what Sonoma can achieve. Give this wine another 4-5 years, and drink it over the following 30+ years.

A riveting blend of 67% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Cabernet Franc, 12% Merlot and the rest Petit Verdot and a dollop of Malbec, the 2005 is developing gorgeously, revealing everything a profound, world-class wine should. It boasts a dense plum/purple color along with an extraordinary bouquet of subtle barbecue smoke intermixed with truffles, black currants, black cherries, licorice and earth. There are thrilling levels of intensity, a skyscraper-like mouthfeel and a phenomenal finish lasting 50-60 seconds. This full-bodied beauty is a perfect, haut couture, seamlessly constructed wine that is still a pre-adolescent in terms of development. It is capable of evolving 30+ years.

The 2017s From Sonoma An absolutely awesome wine that tops out my scale, the 2005 La Joie offers a Château Latour-like stature and structure as well as complex notes of blackcurrants, lead pencil shavings, sandalwood, and crushed rocks. Still youthful and vibrant, it’s full-bodied, has off-the-charts purity, ultra-fine tannins, blockbuster length, and a singular, magical character. Feel free to drink bottles today or cellar for just about as long as you’d like. It will probably outlive everyone reading this.

A stunning wine, one of the most accomplished of the series, made from 67% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Merlot, 7% Petit Verdot, and 2% Malbec. 18 months of barrel-ageing in new French oak has given spice and a charcoal note to the blackberry fruit. It has a dense, tightly-wound texture with a mighty, magnificent tannic framework of remarkable heft and power. This is superbly concentrated but also possesses overall harmony - a truly sumptuous wine.

USA, Northern California, Napa Valley: 2016 & 2017 – A Tale of Two Vintages The 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Mount Veeder is composed of 100% Cabernet Sauvignon. Deep garnet-purple colored, it leaps from the glass with gregarious crème de cassis, wild blueberries and black raspberries with nuances of black tea, violets, aniseed, truffles and new leather plus wafts of charcuterie and chargrill. Full-bodied, very firm and very tightly wound at this youthful stage, the palate is absolutely packed with black fruit and earthy layers, finishing with epic persistence.

North Coast Part 1: Napa Valley’s Incredible 2016s Unfortunately, there won’t be a 2017 due to the fires, but the perfect 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Mt. Veeder should certain tide you over. This literally off-the-charts effort is a good as Cabernet Sauvignon gets, offering complex blueberry and blackberry fruits, violets, bay leaf, and forest floor aromas and flavors. It’s a big, structured mountain Cabernet, yet it has a seamless texture, incredible elegance paired with full-bodied power, building tannins, and a great, great finish. Hide bottles for 4-5 years and it will keep for 3+ decades. Good luck keeping your hands off it, though. Anticipated maturity: 2023-2051

Very deep inky purple colored, the 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Mount Veeder is a little youthfully reticent at this stage, offering glimpses at freshly crushed black currants, black berries and plums with touches of dried Provence herbs, menthol, cigar boxes and Indian spices. Full-bodied with very firm, very ripe tannins and an incredible core of black fruit, earth and spice layers, it has wonderful freshness and depth, finishing long and multilayered.

8 100-Point Wines from Issue 234 Nearly 5,100 wines were tasted in the latest Wine Advocate Issue throughout the regions of Australia, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Japan, Spain and the United States—eight of them received an impressive 100 points. Of these top-scoring wines, two came from the Northern Rhône: “No doubt, 2015 in the Northern Rhône has been trumpeted as the latest ‘vintage of the century,’ “ says Joe Czerwinski, managing editor of the Wine Advocate, in his latest report. “Across the board, it’s a year of formidable concentration and ripeness.” The other 100-pointers in the bunch came from the Napa Valley and Jura. Below, the wines that achieved the perfect score in Issue 234... 2015 Lokoya • Cabernet Sauvignon Mount Veeder “Full-bodied with very firm, very ripe tannins and an incredible core of black fruit, earth and spice layers, it has wonderful freshness and depth, finishing long and multilayered.”

The 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon Mount Veeder is beautifully complete, with a layered, multi-dimensional, elegant profile that's more structured than the Diamond Mountain, yet more seamless and approachable than the Howell Mountain. Crème de cassis, Asian spice, smoked earth, incense and sandalwood note all flow to full-bodied Cabernet Sauvignon that has no hard edges, ultra-fine tannin, incredible purity of fruit, and a great finish. As with all these 2014s, it's not about huge richness and opulence and more about purity, nuance and balance. It's a damn near perfect wine that will only get better with 2-4 years of bottle age and keep for three to four decades.

A wine offering notes of grilled steak, steak tartare, beef blood, blueberries and blackberries galore is the 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon Mount Veeder. Everything here emerges from the Jackson-owned Veeder Peak Vineyard. Chris Carpenter agrees that this has to be one of the greatest vintages he’s ever had the pleasure to work with – and he has some serious experience under his belt. This 100% Cabernet Sauvignon wine is utterly profound, and while the scoring system ends at 100, if I had to pick a single wine that may have been my favorite of all the tastings I did in Napa, this could have been my pick. Full-bodied, rich, with incredible integration of its component parts of acidity, tannin, alcohol and wood, the wine is lavishly built, has compelling purity, richness and density, and a finish, again, that rivals that of the Howell Mountain, being close to one minute in length. This wine will be certainly approachable young, but last 30-40+ years. One of the superstars of the Kendall-Jackson portfolio, the Lokoya wines all come from four microclimates in Napa Valley, are made by the brilliant Chris Carpenter, and range in size (production-wise) from a low of 340 cases for the Diamond Mountain to 1,750 for the Mt. Veeder. All of these wines are 100% Cabernet Sauvignon from some of the best parcels of vines available, aged in 100% new oak and bottled unfiltered. They have been on an absolute qualitative tear for a number of years and seem to go from strength to strength. We’re dealing with possibly the greatest vintage I have tasted in 37 years of visits to Napa Valley – 2013. So, I suppose these reviews are not that unusual.

One of two perfect wines ended my mini-tasting of the offerings from Lokoya in 2013. The 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain from the Keyes Vineyard is an amazing wine. Thick purple in color with a stunning nose of lead pencil shavings, blackcurrants, mulberries and blackberries, the wine has a steely structure, yet enormous concentration, skyscraper-like mouth texture, and builds incrementally to a stunning finish of close to a minute. The purity, the richness, the overall equilibrium are unreal, but then this is Lokoya. Drink it over the next 30+ years. One of the superstars of the Kendall-Jackson portfolio, the Lokoya wines all come from four microclimates in Napa Valley, are made by the brilliant Chris Carpenter, and range in size (production-wise) from a low of 340 cases for the Diamond Mountain to 1,750 for the Mt. Veeder. All of these wines are 100% Cabernet Sauvignon from some of the best parcels of vines available, aged in 100% new oak and bottled unfiltered. They have been on an absolute qualitative tear for a number of years and seem to go from strength to strength. We’re dealing with possibly the greatest vintage I have tasted in 37 years of visits to Napa Valley – 2013. So, I suppose these reviews are not that unusual.

The 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon Mt. Veeder is as compelling a Cabernet Sauvignon as one could ever hope to taste. This 100% Cabernet Sauvignon from a high-elevation site boasts an inky/purple color, and smells of ink, blueberry liqueur, blackberries, black raspberries, mulberries, licorice, charcoal and camphor. With magnificent fruit richness, a layered, full-bodied mouthfeel, and incredible length, this seamlessly constructed 2012 should provide immense pleasure for 25+ years. Kudos to winemaker Chris Carpenter as he is clearly at the top of his game.

It is almost becoming routine to give a three-digit score to Lokoya's Cabernet Sauvignons from Mount Veeder. They just seem to hit every sweet spot on my palate, and the 2005 is a compelling effort. The prodigious 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon Mount Veeder is still a baby at age ten. Inky purple, the wine exhibits notes of graphite, roast meat, forest floor, crème de cassis and blackberry liqueur with touches of asphalt and charcoal. It is full-bodied, ripe and extraordinarily pure and intense, with wonderfully sweet, integrated tannin and wood. This wine, ideally, needs another 5-6 years cellaring, since it's still so young. It will last 30 years, and should turn out to be one of the most compelling superstars of this underrated but very impressive vintage.

A perfect effort is the 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon Keyes Vineyard from Howell Mountain. There are 524 cases of this 100% Cabernet Sauvignon. Its extraordinary perfume of graphite, spring flowers and creme de cassis is followed by a blockbuster red-fruited palate displaying a velvety texture, silky tannins and a 60-second finish. It is unquestionably the most profound wine I have ever tasted from Howell Mountain. Some secondary nuances are apparent, but the wine still seems like an adolescent. It is capable of another 15 years of cellaring.

Absolutely perfect, the 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon Mt. Veeder comes from a terroir that seems to produce magical wines (for example, 1997 and 2001). Aged in 100% new French oak with malolactic in barrel and no fining or filtration, this 2002 came in at 15% alcohol. Prodigious notes of incense, lead pencil shavings, black raspberry liqueur, blueberries, blackberries and cassis give this wine a stunning perfume. Full-bodied, opulent, voluptuously textured and built like a skyscraper on the mid-palate and finish, this is profound mountain Cabernet Sauvignon that should hit its peak in 5-7 years and last for 30 years thereafter. Wow! Kudos to Chris Carpenter and the Jackson Family.

An utterly perfect wine that exemplifies this extraordinary vintage for North Coast Bordeaux varietals is the 2001 Cabernet Sauvignon Mt. Veeder, which comes from the Jackson family's Veeder Peak Vineyard. Unfortunately, slightly less than 300 cases were produced, so availability is limited. A dense opaque blue/purple color is followed by notes of lead pencil shavings, ink, blueberry liqueur, raspberries and black currants. The wine is super intense as well as extremely full-bodied and opulent with great structure, purity and density. (I know this sounds weird, but when I smelled and tasted it, it reminded me of the 2010 La Mission Haut Brion that I had tasted a month earlier, no doubt because of its volcanic/hot rock-like character.) This phenomenal wine is a modern day legend from Napa. Still a youngster in terms of its development, it should hit its peak in another 5-6 years and keep for 30+. Winemaker Chris Carpenter, who has worked for the late Jess Jackson for many years, hit pay dirt at Lokoya in nearly every vintage. Certainly these 2001s have aged magnificently over the last decade. These 100% Cabernet Sauvignons are aged for 18-22 months in 100% new French oak and are bottled with no fining or filtration.

Coming from a coastal site just four miles off the Pacific, the 2015 Chardonnay Far Coast Vineyard was barrel fermented and aged 16 months in 43% new French oak. Buttered citrus, lemon, honeysuckle, white flowers, and building, salty minerality all emerge from this awesomely concentrated, deep, layered, and structured Chardonnay. This is a powerhouse. Full-bodied, opulent, concentrated, yet with bright acidity and perfect balance, it's an incredible effort and one of the finest Chardonnays out there.

Ted Edwards is probably the most underrated winemaker in America, though he’s been at the helm of one of the Napa Valley’s most important wineries for about three decades. Freemark Abbey Cabernet Sauvignon helped put the Napa Valley on the map, its Bosche Cab from a small vineyard in Rutherford. Bosche Cabernet Sauvignon can age for up to 30 years. The 2013 is yet another in the winery’s long chain of successes from this vineyard treasure. The soft-spoken Edwards has crafter another masterpiece, a monumental wine that is remarkably concentrated and powerful without being ponderous or heavy. Notes of cassis and blackberry, wood spice and beautifully integrated tannins make the 2013 Bosche irresistible even at this early stage, but it really needs another 10 to 12 years to really strut its stuff.

The Top 40

The Cabernet Franc vines here are shaded by towering Douglas firs that cast long shadows
across the site as the sun sets. Originally intended as a blending component for the
Cabernet Sauvignon, winemaker Chris Carpenter was so struck by the wine’s signature
that he chose to bottle it on its own—especially given its kinship to the La Jota Cabernet
Franc from Howell Mountain. But here, across the valley on Mount Veeder, the wine takes
on a distinct profile, with an intense forest berry character that carries through to the
tannins. There’s a deep, redwood or conifer-like quality to them—dark and firm like the bark
of those trees—. Yet, they’re finely grained and seamlessly integrated, forming a solid
foundation for layers of blackberry fruit, rich brown baking spice, dark salted chocolate,
and a piercing graphite minerality that spreads across the palate with thrilling precision. It’s
a structural marvel, and all the more impressive in the challenging 2022 vintage. Enjoy now
for its up-front decadence of dark fruit and spice, or cellar it and watch it evolve into
something truly magical over the next 20 to 30 years.

Chris Carpenter’s thesis at UC Davis was on Malbec, and the knowledge he gained—
especially from studying the grape in Argentina—informs his approach today. When he
began working with this fruit (originally planted in the early 2000s, with a second planting in
2008), he applied that foundation with precision. He’s quick to point out that this is not an
Australian Cabernet substitute—he’s drawn to Malbec’s bright red fruit and rhubarb-like
character. And in the glass? This is, without exaggeration, one of the most compelling
Malbecs I’ve tasted from the United States. It delivers a vivid profile of blue fruit, riveting
dark raspberry, and mineral tension, all wrapped in hauntingly floral aromatics. The palate
is medium to full-bodied, with richness that never tips into excess. Everything is in
balance—fruit, freshness, structure. The tannins are superfine and velvety, and the finish
goes on for days. For those who think they know Malbec, this wine from Napa will challenge
and expand your expectations. A life-changing bottle—seek it out.

The 2021 ‘La Muse’ is nearly all Merlot (90%) with the remainder Cabernet Franc and Malbec. Gorgeous florals on the nose mingle with dark currants, tobacco leaf, and shades of graphite. The drop-dead gorgeous aromatics pull you back to the glass. The palate is ultra-refined with smooth tannins and a silky mouthfeel.