Artesa Cabernet Sauvignon Cask Reserve Napa Valley 2019

This is for serious Cabernet collectors, as well as those of you with a taste for the finest and fanciest things. We have Artesa’s 2019 Cask Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon – one of their most beautiful and carefully wrought creations.

This four-vineyard blend is 97% Cabernet Sauvignon and 3% Petit Verdot. The year was 2019, which was a classic growing season here in Napa Valley with nicely moderate temperatures. The taste and feel of this is stop-in-your-tracks gorgeous – exactly expressing winemaker Ana Diogo-Draper’s assessment of their reds that year: “luscious and stout.” Rutherford, Calistoga, and Oak Knoll on the valley floor provide the lush, bright cherry and mocha notes. The Edcora Vineyard in Atlas Peak represents higher-elevation character, bringing in darker fruit notes and mid-palate structure. 

Ana fermented and aged different blocks within each vineyard separately, making tailored decisions such as whole cluster inclusion and length of maceration. The lots were aged 22 months in 100% French oak (40% new), and she put the blend together from the best individual barrels of the vintage. 

Plus, that excellent score. The always spot-on Elaine Chukan Brown, tasting for Wine Enthusiast, gave this 94 points and noted, “velvety tannins coat the mouth through a long, mouthwatering finish.”

We spent quite a while just enjoying the deliciously cold nose, like wet slate and rainy sidewalk… blooming into sandalwood and Thai spices, then dry green tea leaves, cherry pie filling, and some sweet red earth, too! It’s open-knit and alive but self-possessed, firmly drawing you into a palate that drops into a more savory register. Smooth black currant is pricked with medicinal herbs, red pepper, licorice, and gingery cream. A wash of fine tannins coats the tongue on the finish, then the oak barrel does this final magic trick of feeling more like tender green oak leaves in the spring

The nose doesn’t disappear when you sip – instead, you taste it all in stereo. Friendly, poised, charismatic, impressive – this is an Emily Blunt of a Cab. You cannot go wrong adding this to your special stash. And at our price, it doesn’t have to be just a special occasion bottle. Treat yourself.