- 2006 Chappellet Cabernet Sauvignon Pritchard Hill Estate Vineyard - USA, California, Napa Valley (19/01/2025)
2hs decanting
The bouquet reminds me of the best wines from Howell Mountains (La Jota, Dunn): black fruits mixed with the scent of forest floor, mint and earth. Smell is fresh, sweet, intense and deeply penetrating the scent registers in the nose.
This is one of those wines where just from the bouquet you know that the taste of the wine must be: WOW.
As the color ( almost black) and the intensity of the smell suggest, wine has a simply great concentration of flavors. The sweetness of black and red fruits is wrapped in an incredibly soft tannin structure complemented by the proper acidity in the aftertaste.
At the same time, wine is not "massive" as many modern wines made from vineyards located on Valley floor, its structure is more reminiscent of wines from mountain vineyards, i.e. a solid tannin structure keeps the size of the wine in check and doesn't reminds "aircraft carriers" from Oakville or other sub-districts of the Valley. I have the impression that this wine is a cross between wines from mountain vineyards, e.g. Howell or Diamond Mountain (tannic structure, acidity, more elegant structure) and wine from Napa Valley floor (incredible ripeness and sweetness of the fruit and general opulence). It went perfectly with beef entrecote steaks, but can be drunk alone as it is so delicious. Although there is almost 15% of alcohol, it has completely hidden in the wine, in the aftertaste there is no bitterness or drying tannins. The archetypal cabernet sauvignon from Napa without the flaws that are sometimes attributed to these wines (too heavy, tiring alcohol, monolithic taste, lack of personality, drowning the wine in a barrel, etc. etc.).
Pritchard Hill is the place where no ordinary wines are borne ( as in Vosne Romanee in Burgundy) (97 points)Posted from CellarTracker
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Thank you for that wonderful note!
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