Sipping Fine Wine

8.9

Barrel aged 10 months sur lie! Medium lemon color with aromas of stone and citrus fruits with notes of warm baking spice. On the palate ripe apple and lemon flavors with vanilla and nutty toasty oak. Well balanced on medium finish ending, a bit buttery with slight oak and mineral notes. Drink now! — 20 days ago

Paul T HB

9.5

Needs a little air, great recommendation from @Somm David T
First mag of two — a month ago

Jennifer Pletcher

8.9

Warm, juicy. Lots of fruit. A hint of overripe fruit. A touch of coconut. — a month ago

Doug Powers

9.2

Lovely mature Cabernet fruit, structure, yet seems fully mature or close to mature, a real treat to taste an older CA Cabernet with age (@ 12.5% ABV to boot), lovely!! — 2 months ago

with Jim

Jeremiah Diaz

9.4

Clear, deep ruby in color; on the nose, it's clean with pronounced primary and secondary aromas of blackberries, black cherries, and wood smoke; on the palate, dry with high acidity, high tannins, high alcohol, full body, and pronounced intensity primary and secondary flavors of black currants, red bell peppers, black pepper, and crushed gravel with a long finish. This wine is intense and complex, but a little high in alcohol. Overall, I rate this wine as very good. It may need a little more time to open up. — 8 days ago

with Nellie

John Greer

8.9

Consistently good everyday wine dinner — 19 days ago

Mark Osmers

9.2

Wine Spectator rated the ‘21 with an impressive 93 points and this Merlot was featured as #25 on the Top 100 wines of 2024.

flavor notes include blackberry, dark, cherry cedar, and that earthy Napa finish

I recommend this read to anyone who can find the 2021 vintage. Perhaps other years too. — a month ago

Tom Garland

9.2

Pop and pour. A brilliant medium gold color. On the nose: lemon, grilled pear, crushed stone, apricot, caramel, and honey. Taste: chalky, lean acid driven style with pear, steely minerality, green apple, saline, orange/lemon rind, and a medium plus finish. YUM! My favorite Napa chardonnay. — 25 days ago

with Brenda

Cassandra Heifetz

9.7

Love the body, depth, and flavor — 5 days ago

DCH

9.4

Really impressed.
St. Innocent’s consistency of style lets terroir shine through their single vineyard series. Like a controlled experiment. 2021 Temperance Hill shows incredible levels of complexity and spice, while maintaining a great degree of balance and approachability. Put simply, it tastes great.

I haven’t had a chance to taste 2021 Momtazi, but this wine has similar levels of depth to prior vintages if memory serves, while being more easily appealing. I’ve tired 2021 Shea, but not side-by-side with this. While the Shea is an excellent wine, for my taste this is more expressive and interesting. — a month ago