Oakville Cuvée Christiane Red Blend

Stuart Spoto and his wife spent some time visiting TX for a few days and put on a nice tasting at Classic. Talk about micro production, they only do around 500 cases of wine total across their 5-7 wines. Kind and salt of the earth type people.

This is close to half Cabernet, the rest a Cabernet Franc and merlot blend (and a dash of Malbec). After about 30mins, this changed dramatically as the Cabernet franc took over. Very floral and spicy. Darker profile but the fruit is more black cherry like. Distinct note of red clay. Needs time.

Spoto wines have got to be one of the more under the radar wines out of Cali. They source incredible fruit and are wonderful people. I’ve had many current vintage wines but this was a treat.

This was dominant cab (around 70’ish%) with a mix of the other Bordeaux varietals. This has turned a bit secondary and shows very Bordeaux like. Ripe red and black fruits with dates, old graham cracker, and saddle leather. There is a mushroom and herbal note on the finish here too. Drink up. Thanks @Mark Flesher

For a 2016 Spoto, this one did well. Of course, opening and Mollydooker shaking this one 7 hours beforehand likely did this one extremely well. Youthful black cherry, blackberry and dried herb. Middle and finish still has oak influence which is quite substantial. Really nice wine which will age nicely.

Opened a wonderful fully body 2016 Cuvée. A blend mainly of Cabernet Sauvignon some Malbec and Cab Franc. from Spoto Family Vineyards here in our hometown, Sacramento CA. Color dark red black fruit. The nose definitely is dark plum cherry with chocolate spice, and subtle hints of vanilla and cedar. Dark cherry fruits burst in your mouth, lingers with spice and flora fruits and finishes with a lovely vanilla tobacco taste at the back of the tongue.

This wine was in a great spot tonight. Last one enjoyed during Easter Sunday and it was certainly a very good wine with lots of black cherry and sweet youthful fruit potential. But good LAWD man tonight this one just showed everything it had. It will take a LOT to not go to storage and pick another one of these up tomorrow...but I'm certainly gonna try to make the others last! Massive wine showing a little more tonight.

@Delectable Wine , this is the 2015 Cuvee Christiane (name changes yearly) -- This one fell victim to experiment. I might as well ship these bottles away to military school because the other five need some serious time. The wine is certainly not bad now. Getting LOTS of red fruits and some black cherry on the nose. The entry just shows the youth of this "40/40" cab/merlot (with the remainder comprised of other Bordeaux varieties). Entry is chalky, very early and immature raspberry and black cherry with a hint of sweetness there. The more 'dusty' youthful fruit was appreciated, but just not the way I prefer. Getting a hint of baking chocolate in the middle and and cola and mint towards the back. Density is there, but tannin is a little forceful right now. In 3-5 years, this is going to be ROLLING. Guess I need to stick to the pre-2010 cuvees for another year at least.