Wolfe Grade Cabernet Sauvignon 2016 | 100pt Mayacamas Mountain Source
Wolfe Grade Cabernet Sauvignon 2016 pours a dark ruby red leads into baked blackberry and Japanese plum aromas, flecked with licorice, black olive, and Asian spice box. Its mountain origins come through immediately on entry, with sun-kissed brambly fruit on an impressively balanced palate that leads into a lifted thread of graphite mineral and just a touch of secondary complexity from its four years of age. Fine, dusty tannins carry the long finish that lasts a full minute, promising another 15+ years of cellar life.
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The flagship Cabernet from this estate earned 100 points in 2016, with critic Jeb Dunnuck urging his readers, “if you want to taste pure perfection from Sonoma, try this wine! From the very same vintage, winemaking genius, and 100-point estate that delivers the Cabernet that Robert M. Parker Jr. has also described as “a quintessential example of what perfection is in my business. As a result, Wolfe Grade Cabernet Sauvignon 2016 has all the terroir complexity of its perfect-scoring $300+ big brother for one-tenth the price.
Spring Mountain, on the steep slopes of the Mayacamas in Sonoma
Planted at 1,700 feet, the precipitous vineyards could in fact never be planted by today’s regulations. Topping out at 55-degree gradients—the steepest of which literally match the slope of the great pyramids. As a result, the undulating volcanic knolls and ridges create variations in elevation, soils, and aspect. Which translates into complex Cabernet that could come from no other place.
Why mess with perfection?
From the same 100-point source that Parker lauded in previous vintages as “reminiscent of the great classics from the golden era of the Mayacamas on the Napa side” and able to “compete with very finest Cabernet-based wines in the world. So, it’s incredible this wound up in a $38 bottle, that’s an even bigger steal at $32 on cases.
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“Why mess with perfection?” asked Wolfe Grade’s 100-point winemaker. A couple of years later, the answer to that question is how we ended up with today’s rich, dense, and supremely balanced Wolfe Grade Cabernet Sauvignon 2016. This is an unexpected amazing opportunity. Don’t miss it!
