Karo-Kann Proprietary Red 2016 | Instantly Appealing Napa Proprietary Red
Karo-Kann Proprietary Red 2016 presents inky purple-black color, like a crushed blackberry. Sweetly spiced aromas of whole vanilla pod, blackberries, café mocha, ripe mulberry, and a subtle frame of graphite precede a generous, velvet-textured palate that glides across the tongue in waves of chocolate ganache, kirsch, cherry liqueur, and sweet toasted oak spice that finds a perfectly balanced counterpoint in more savory notes of graphite and cedar. Drink now – 2025.
The Long Game | Exclusive Bottling for ½ the price!
Every once in a while, you have to break the mold in order to improve it. For a long time, proprietary reds from Napa Valley were primarily expressions of ripe, juicy Cabernet Sauvignons. And with a bit of seasoning from other varieties. But with Karo-Kann, a Wine Access exclusive label, we have been playing the long game, building relationships with some of the top vineyards in California for years, which allows us to offer wines like this paradigm-shifting beauty—an inky, purple-black wine bursting with blackberry preserves, sage, and vanilla atop a silky-smooth texture. Even better, it comes at a sub-$30 price that may shift your mindset without forcing a shift to your spending habits.
More Awesome Red Blends
So the components for this wine come from some of the top vineyards in Napa. Including exclusive sources in Oakville, Rutherford, and St. Helena. Notably where proprietary reds start at three times the price of Karo Kann. And of course, the structure and age-worthiness of such pedigreed sites shine through with effusiveness in this bottle. More than that, it’s the inimitably juicy quality to the fruit and the lifted spice tones from the high proportion of Petit Verdot and Petite Sirah that set Karo-Kann Proprietary Red 2016 apart, and make it just as appealing to open right now as it will be in another five years, after it’s had time to repose in the cellar.
Captivating 2016 Napa Vintage
And it’s from 2016, a vintage all of the Big Three (Wine Spectator, Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate, and Vinous) praised in Napa. While the Advocate gushed, “2016 was not just a great year for Napa Cabernet Sauvignon; there are many amazing Cabernet Francs and Merlots to be found too. Though Vinous may have said it best, calling the year a “captivating vintage from top to bottom.”
In that regard, the Karo-Kann Proprietary Red 2016 is a pitch-perfect evocation of the vintage. Like the best of the 2016s from Napa Valley, the blackberry and mulberry fruit here is generous. Yet demanding attention right away. But beneath all of that is a savory undertow. While the pencil lead and toasty oak spice dance perfectly with the café mocha and chocolate that linger through the finish.
