Tasting Notes

WA98

Close to perfection is the 2013 Reserve Claret, a blend of 62% Merlot, 37% Cabernet Sauvignon and 1% Petit Verdot, aged 22 months in 20% new French oak. There are 450 cases of this big boy (14.8% alcohol). This is a 30-year wine and a spectacular effort, with 14% coming from the Napa side of the property and 86% from the Sonoma County side. Dense opaque purple, with a glorious nose of chocolate, and espresso intermixed with mulberry fruit, blueberry and blackberry, it is fleshy, succulent, full-bodied, opulent and impressively structured. In fact, the 2013 tannic profile is alive in this wine, and thus I suggest 3-5 years of bottle age. Drink it over the following three decades.

V94

A highlight among these current releases, the 2013 Reserve Claret is also one of the most explosive wines in the range. As such, it is likely to require at least a few years of cellaring. Cedar, red stone fruit, smoke and tobacco give the 2013 its distinctly savory personality. There is plenty of depth and intensity in the glass, but the 2013 needs time to shed some of its ferocious mountain tannin.

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