Freddy R. Troya

9.2

The Black Square — Cabernet Sauvignon 2022, The Rocks District of Milton-Freewater, Oregon, USA 🇺🇸

Overview
100% Cabernet Sauvignon from this basalt-strewn, high-desert terroir shows a distinctly savory expression, structured, mineral-driven, and aromatic. Less plush Napa, more earth and place. A refined, terroir-forward Cab with tension and character.

Aromas & Flavors
Black Forest cake, ripe dark cherry, cassis, crushed rock, dried herbs, sagebrush, violet, subtle graphite.

Mouthfeel
Medium+ body, firm yet polished tannins, dry, lifted acidity, savory and linear rather than plush. Elegant grip with excellent balance.

Food Pairings
Grilled lamb chops, rosemary steak, mushroom ragù, duck breast, aged Manchego.

Verdict
A Cabernet that speaks landscape more than oak. Complex, herbaceous, and harmonious, cerebral and refined rather than showy. Terroir lovers’ Cab.

🍷 Did You Know?
The Rocks District is famous for its cobblestone soils (ancient river stones), which often give wines a distinctive savory, herbal, and stony character rarely found in classic California Cabernet. — 5 months ago

Fredrik Finn

9.2

Naked and transparent, but stands firm with full confidence.
Lovely perfume of red fresh berries, fresh herbs and a red floral and peppermint-lift and orange blossom, over a platform of undergrowth
, nutmeg and mother rock.
Enters the room somewhat shy on the palate, but soon builds character and confidence over the palate. A stoney minerality and good acidity brings nerve and tension over an expansive mid palate with a strong fatigue through a rather long finish. Makeup is not needed on true beauty,
And yea it could easily be mistaken for A Gredos Garnacha from Bernabeleva, Comando G, Land and the likes.
Paired with chicken breast with ndjuja smeared under the skin, roast potatoes and Jerusalem artichokes, and a chicken- tarragon velouté
— 5 years ago

Kerry Bunting

9.4

Easy to drink. Nice acidity. Little limestoney. Keep buying. — 7 years ago

Fredrik Finn

9.4

The 2017 Le Mont Demi Sec is youthful and will be a keeper for the long run, yet its so enchanting already. Near 20 g/ sugar has been left behind and acts as a gentle stroke of sweetness followed by its fresh acidity embedded into its ripe and honey tinged, waxy profile that keeps on pushing and evolving all the way down to the mother rock. — 7 years ago

Elle West

9.1

First review!! Light, carbonic, grassy, juicy, crisp apple. Yum. — 7 years ago

Patti Gamboni

9.0

Clay on top of mother rock. A little bit higher alcohol on finish. — 8 years ago

Karla Farjo

9.3

Light bodied. Delicious with notes of licorice, but not overwhelming. — 7 months ago

Kristen Grimes

9.0

Fitvine extra brut prosecco. Much better than actual prosecco, which, as my mother-in-law says, is shite. Light bodied, tart, dry. Perfect post-race wine!! Rock N Roll San Diego 5K done!! 🌴 — a year ago

Fredrik Finn

9.3

Near equal parts of Rousanne, Chenin and Chardonnay backed by Verdelho and a touch of Muscat sourced from Hamel en Aarde in Walker Bay, South Africa. Low intervention winemaking with elevage in old, neutral wood.
A fab complexity on the nose with a generous fruit, ranging from bruised apple, juicy peaches, orange blossom, through some tropical characters with a honeyd edge followed by toasted nuts and a mother rock-minerality. Rich on the palate but with a fresh acidity and a savoury dimension, ripe fruit drives the palate with a creamy slight waxy mid palate through a dry and solid finish. A performance that hits well above its modest price, though fall somewhat short on the finish to play in the big league, nevertheless an other remarkable wine from Alheit.
Serve at 10-12 degrees in generous burgundy glasses — 5 years ago

Oda Lauten

9.0

Spennende hvitvin. Fruktig. Tåkete. — 7 years ago

Julie Niemi

9.1

Such a fun wine from South Africa swartland. Light purple, plumy, tart, with a hint of granite terroir. Will def drinks again. Best when chilled. — 7 years ago

Katie Zanin

9.2

Light-bodied, thirst-quenching field blend. Tart & fruity. — 8 years ago

Patti Gamboni

9.3

Sandstone on top of mother rock. — 8 years ago

Great Sage

9.7

Bitterness of grapefruit peel balances the fresh green apples and strawberry notes of the wine. Tasty and enjoyable! — 9 months ago

Scott G

9.0

Funky sweetness at the beginning, nothing but minerals at the end. Great with Thai. — 5 years ago

with Jason

Alia Connor

9.2

Still just love this so much — 6 years ago

Keelan Higgins

9.4

Incredible. Smells like dirt and manure after a fresh downpour. Bursts in the mouth with the flavor of minerals and red fruit. Feels alive on the pallet - awakening. Highly recommend for something unexpected, vibrant, and fun to drink. — 6 years ago

Independent wines

8.9

fruta roja, fresa ácida, rapón, boca ligera con qcidez — 7 years ago

Patrick Moran

10

There is a whole lotta fruit coming at you from this one - cherries and blackberries and strawberries. But there's also a wild earthiness and minerality, like rocks pulled from the garden, that is just killer. There are medium tannins, but it is still pretty light-bodied, with punchy acidity. There is also some VA bouncing around in there, which some people really don't like, but I think it wears well here. .
.
Cinsault, Carignan, and Mourvedre from organic vineyards in Swartland are whole cluster fermented and raised in large format French Oak barrels before being bottled without fining or filtration. I am all about this! — 7 years ago

Somm David T

Independent Sommelier/Wine Educator

9.5

On the nose; very ruby, floral plum fruits of; blackberries, dark cherries, black raspberries, Thompson raisins, fresh dates and prunes. Black licorice, creamy dark fruit cola, caramel, milk & dark chocolate, soft beautiful dark spice, touch of eucalyptus, fresh herbs, limestone, soft presence dry crushed rocks, a whiff of pepper, fresh lavender, violets and dark withering floral bouquet.

The body is full and lush. Fine meaty, tarry, tannins. Very ruby, floral plum fruits of; blackberries, dark cherries, black raspberries, Thompson raisins, fresh dates and prunes. Black licorice, creamy dark fruit cola, caramel, milk & dark chocolate, soft beautiful dark spice, touch of eucalyptus, fresh herbs, limestone, soft presence dry crushed rocks, suede leather, dry clay, dry top soil, dry underbrush, a whiff of pepper, fresh lavender, violets and dark withering floral bouquet. The acidity is very nice. There is good structure, tension, length and balance that needs 10 years plus to flush out. The finish is good, well balanced with fine powdery sticky tannins.

Photos of, Cliff Lede tasting facility, wire woven sculptures that decorate the grounds, Owner David Lede and the Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard.

Producer history and notes...Cliff Lede Vineyards (pronounced LayDee) was founded in 2002 on what used to be S. Anderson Vineyard, a winery that was founded in 1971 by Stanley and Carol Anderson primarily known for their sparkling wines.

Cliff Lede is from Leduc, Alberta a small town just south of Edmonton. The reason you see a Canadian flag in front of the parking next to the US Flag. David and Cliff helped run their father’s construction company he founded in 1947, Leduc Construction. Later the company was renamed to Ledcor Construction in 1982. They ultimately built the business into one of the world’s largest construction companies. Through Cliff, the company established business in the Napa Valley focusing on wineries, restaurants, premium resorts and private residences. Some of their more notable works include; Morimoto Restaurant, Davis Estate Winery, Lokoya Winery, Marciano Estate and the Riverfront Residences in downtown Napa.

After several decades at Ledcor, Cliff decided to pursue his passion for wine. His first introduction to wine was helping his mother make wine at home. Later he began collecting wines from Bordeaux, and even considered purchasing property there. However, he fell in love with Napa after business took him to Northern California.

Cliff Lede owns 60 acres of vineyards in the Stags Leap District. This includes the Twin Peaks Vineyard surrounding the winery and tasting room. The Poetry Vineyard was acquired a year after Cliff established Cliff Lede Vineyards. It is planted on steep hillsides down to the Silverado Trail. It’s planted with red Bordeaux varietals, mostly Cabernet Sauvignon. The soils there are extremely rocky. Despite being so close to the Poetry Vineyard, the soils in the Twin Peaks Vineyard are dramatically different. They are gravelly loam.

From a viticulture aspect, this diversity of terroir is a good representation of what the Stags Leap District has to offer, ranging from its upper most reaches of 400 feet to the valley floor. Even among their two Stags Leap properties, there are micro-climates. The west facing vineyard hillsides become quite warm during the day in the summer but cool off significantly in the evenings. This diurnal temperature swing is important for growing premium grapes including maintaining acidity.

The winery also owns a 20 acre vineyard in Calistoga at the base of Diamond Mountain planted primarily to Cabernet Sauvignon as well as a small block of Sauvignon Blanc.

Further to the north in Mendocino County is their Savoy Vineyard, which is a 42 acre site in Anderson Valley. It is planted mainly to Pinot Noir along with Chardonnay. It provides fruit for their FEL Wines (a name that Cliff chose to pay homage to his mother, using the first three initials of her full name Florence Elsie Lede.

Cliff’s love for all things “Rock and Roll”, he named all their blocks in their Stags Leap District Vineyards after famous rock and roll songs or albums such as “Dark Side of the Moon”, “Walk on the Wildside”, “Light my Fire” and “American Girl. ”Collectively these are referred to as the “Rock Blocks.”

David Abreu quickly realized the exceptional terroir of the Poetry Vineyard as did Cliff when they initially tried some of the S. Anderson wines from this site. Abreu oversaw its replanting and clonal material sourced from a number of premiere Napa vineyards. While Abreu was the original vineyard architect, he is no longer involved in the management of the their vineyards. They are now controlled by their in-house vineyard team.

The winery, tasting room and the nearby luxury Poetry Inn all opened around 2005. Architect Howard Gillam was hired to design the winery. Cliff’s background in construction and architectural preferences certainly influenced its design. The tasting room has a more contemporary feel rather then some of his more rustic looking designs. It features beautiful views of the Napa Valley. Inspired by the shape of tanks during a visit to Château Latour in Bordeaux, Cliff commissioned Missouri based Paul Mueller Company to create special truncated tanks for fermentation to help submerse more of the cap. Each tank corresponds to a specific vineyard block. During harvest, a specially designed crane gently moves and lowers a hopper full of whole berries into each tank.

Sorting is a big part of their attention to detail before fermentation. After the grapes come into the winery, they are sorted by hand, then run through an optical sorter and then finally put through an additional final hand sorting. Nearby is a 20,000 square foot cave that connects directly to the winery. World famous Michel Rolland was brought on in the early years as a consultant. Philipe Melka also made Cliff Lede wines for several years and today Christopher Tynan is the Winemaker. He was formerly Assistant Winemaker at Colgin.

Total annual production is between 18,000 and 20,000 cases depending on what Mother Nature gives them. The majority of this is comprised of their Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc and their Stags Leap District Cabernet Sauvignon. — 8 years ago