TN: 2014 White Rock Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon (USA, California, Napa Valley)

  • 2014 White Rock Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon - USA, California, Napa Valley (6/3/2021)
    Day 1: Wow! Bordeaux like funk along with cherry, minerals, tar, gravel and underbrush. Medium plus and concentrated finish. Wish every Napa Valley wine delivered at this price. 94 points
    Day 2: Still showing that nice funk with cherry, plum, minerals, gravel and underbrush. Some nice spice on the finish. Very concentrated effort and a super solid wine for under $100. 94 points
    Day 3: This wine is going to age through 2030. Beautiful on day 3. Gravel, mild funk, spice, blueberries, cherry, plum and bell peppers. Medium to long finish. One of the better Napa wines for under $100.00 I have tasted in the last decade. 94 points
    Recommendation: Buy it! (94 pts.)

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I have not had this vintage, but you remind me how good these cabs can be, and I wonder why I do not buy and drink more of them. It is kind of a under the radar label, at least for me. Did I mention consistency also?

Thanks for the tasting note, John!! [cheers.gif]


I also tried the White Rock Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon a couple of times a few years ago at a local wine shop (NW Louisiana). Henri Vandendriessche’s son Chris served as the winemaker for a local favorite called Vending Machine Wine Company, so our state’s distributor was able to secure a handful of cases of White Rock Cab for retail sale.


To go on a tangent…
I tried several of the VMWC bottlings a while back. The wine labels featured Grant Schexnider paintings of classic movie monsters and New Orleans imagery.

ds_front_lores_jk1o.jpg
Here’s what Monica Bourgeois told me about VMWC’s unique “Squawking Parrot” Napa Valley Carignan/Petite Sirah blend:

“…Our Carignan actually comes from a vineyard just south of Stags Leap. A friend purchased a vineyard and growing wild on a barbed wire picket fence was this crazy Carignan bush essentially. So this particular winemaker makes very extracted reds and had no use for this so he offered it to us as a one off before they uprooted it. It’s estimated to be close to 100 years old. So that was crazy fun! But on the flip side, we could only make a couple of barrels of it and yeah, the wine was soft and peppery so we knew we couldn’t send it out as a single varietal…”.


Vending Machine Wine Company website:
http://www.vendingmachinewinery.com/about

Drew what did you think of the wine?

Had a 2012 last year and had a similar reaction. Stunningly good and wondered at the time why there is isn’t more chatter anywhere about this wine. Made a mental note to search for me before it fell off my radar again.

Sorry, which one? The White Rock Cabernet or the Vending Machine “Squawking Parrot”?