Farella Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon

This extremely young Napa Cabernet is big and tannic.

Fruit forward and already complex, with black fruits and chocolate notes.

Good by itself as a sipping wine or with food.

Needs many years to mature properly.

14.6% alcohol by volume.

94 points.

This one is a 93+ at this stage with room for improvements with some more age.

The Farella showed a more savory character than the rest. It’s body thicker than the others. Ruby; blackberries, black plum, black raspberries & raspberries. Herbaceous notes, soft minerality-rock powder, limestone, volcanics and just drying top soil, dry tobacco, sandalwood, perfectly executed baking spices, dark spice, vanillin, withering dark, red, blue and violets, nice round acidity, nice tension, structure, well knitted & balanced structure with an excellent full minute finish.

Pano photo of Pritchard Hill from the estate (what a stunning view), barrel room, the estates wine collection; which given the excellent producers in it (bottles of Petrus just one of very expensive producers), I’d be a little earthquake nervous & lay some thin wire over the bottles to hold them in place and their tank room.

First time I’ve tried the 2012 vintage in a long time. Very nice.

intense aromatics, blackberry, milk chocolate, vanilla bean, licorice, pencil shavings, menthol; dark fruit and sweet fine grained tannins with incredible concentration, density, and persistence; 14.6% ABV; 100% Cabernet Sauvignon sourced from Farella Vineyard planted in red volcanic soils, fruit used to go to Opus One; in a fantastic place right now; $150

Second time to taste this 2014. Continues to hit expectations.

Nice midweight. Bright.

Polished. Purple profile.

Spice rich dark

Not much spice. Flat.

This is not what I’d expect from a 2011. Much smoother than most from this vintage. Got better after an hour of decanting