Wine & Spirits

Winemaker Notes The name Melbury is in homage to an historic area in London, where the estate owners reside much of the year. Since its debut with the 1999 vintage, the consistent hallmarks of Melbury have been plush red fruits (currants, bing cherries), redolent with spice and the scent of violets. Elegance and a supple texture define the structure of this wine. The particular exposition of this rocky 7-acre hillside vineyard is southerly overlooking Lake Hennessey, allowing the vines to capture the morning sun yet moderating afternoon temperatures. Critical Acclaim Jeb Dunnuck Moving to the single vineyard releases, the 2016 Melbury is pure perfection in a glass and is the finest vintage of this cuvée I’ve tasted. Awesome notes of cassis, blackcurrants, toasted bread, white flowers, and spice give way to an ethereal, seamless, yet opulent wine that has that rare mix of power and elegance possessed by all truly great wines. Full-bodied, concentrated, and with building yet perfectly ripe tannins, do your best to give bottles 4-5 years of bottle age. It will evolve effortlessly for 30 years or more. James Suckling Blueberries, forest floor, and hints of fresh flowers on the nose. Full-bodied, very dense and polished with amazingly tight and integrated fruit. Persistent finish. The tannins melt into the wine. Complete. Drink after 2023.

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Winemaker Notes Vecina is coined from the Spanish word for neighbor. This is our endeavor with the property situated directly southeast of the BOND winery. The beautifully terraced volcanic soil slopes of this property reside in Oakville’s western foothills. The 11-acre site faces due east and is the recipient of cool morning sun. Vecina, which appeared with the 1999 vintage in the inaugural BOND release, is always powerful, intense and savory. Vecina’s other hallmarks are blackberry fruit, with wild forest floor and mineral associated overtones. Critical Acclaim RP98 Robert Parker's Wine Advocate The 2014 Vecina displays a deep garnet-purple color and has a broody, baked blueberries, cassis and anise-laced nose with suggestions of garrigue, dusty earth and bay leaves. Full-bodied, rich, spicy and powerful in the mouth, it offers a lot of latent layers and promises great, great things to come with an incredibly long, layered finish. It needs a bit of time but should cellar beautifully for a good 25 years+. JD97 Jeb Dunnuck Another awesome wine is the 2014 Vecina and it’s from a vineyard on the western side of the valley, right up next to Harlan Estate. This deep, full-bodied, seriously concentrated 2014 gives up loads of plums, currants, toasty oak, chocolate, and chalky minerality. It picks up a touch of violets with time in the glass, but the theme here is deep, dark fruit and minerality. With the forward, supple style of the vintage, it still has serious concentration and structure, and is going to be long-lived.

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Clear, deep ruby. Clean, medium plus intensity aroma of blackberry, currant, leather, cedar, anise. Dry, high acidity, high tannins, full body and long finish. Palate confirms the nose. --Marcos Iglesias "The purity of fruit is fantastic with blackberries, blackcurrants, blueberries and hints of walnut shell. Full-bodied, tight and very focused. Chewy tannins and a long, flavorful finish. " 99 points James Suckling  

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Winemaker notes: The 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon is a blend of 88% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Merlot and 3% Petit Verdot. Deep garnet-purple colored, it rocks-up out of the glass with open knit scents of blackcurrant pastilles, black raspberries and mulberries plus suggestions of garrigue, potpourri, stewed black tea and fragrant earth. Rating: 92 points Jeb Dunnuck – Lots of crème de cassis, cedar wood, tobacco, and dried herb-like aromas and flavors emerge from the 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon. A medium to full-bodied, elegant wine that’s very much in the more linear, elegant style of the 2018 vintage, it has light tannins, nicely integrated acidity, and a pure, classy, balanced style. It’s going to evolve nicely for 10-15 years.

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93 points Vinous  Rinaldi's 2003 Barolo Brunate Le Coste is another gorgeous wine. Fresher than the Barolo Cannubi/S. Lorenzo Ravera, the Brunate impresses for its freshness and overall balance. Here the aromatics retain an attractive sense of lift, while the tannins are nicely integrated, especially considering the year. The heat of the vintage is evident, but with some decanting, the 2003 freshens up a bit. This is a wine to open, drink and enjoy without a lot of fanfare. In 2003, the Brunate Le Coste absorbed the punishing heat a little more gracefully than the Barolo Cannubi/S. Lorenzo Ravera. (AG)  (6/2014) 91 points Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar  Medium amber-red. Distinct notes of surmaturite on the nose: plum jam, damp earth, black truffle. Then lush, fat and wonderfully sweet, with liqueur-like red fruit and brown spice flavors showing plenty of energy. A strong, highly concentrated wine finishing with rich, surprisingly suave, horizontal tannins and enticing lingering sweetness. (ST)  (11/2007) 90 points Wine Spectator  Shows wonderful aromas of ripe strawberry, with hints of nectarine. Full and silky, with pretty fruit and a caressing finish. Racy. (JS)  (12/2007)

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Vineyard notes: "Produced from 314 plots totaling nearly 28 hectares (75 acres) of vineyards. Ao Yun vineyards range in altitude from 2,200 to 2,600 meters, enabling the cabernet sauvignon grape to express the full refinement of this unique terroir. Local farmers have worked these lands for centuries, adapting their farming techniques to the steep mountainsides. To respect time-honored local tradition, the grape harvest and winemaking are done entirely by hand. The Ao Yun terroir enjoys exceptional climatic conditions, with temperatures similar to those of Bordeaux."   Showing blackberry, ink, tar, earth, incense, cloves and black licorice. Thyme, too. And the purity of fruit with cassis is the real thing. This is full-bodied but it remains so fresh and vertical on the palate. A  blend of 60 percent cabernet sauvignon, 19 percent cabernet franc, 10 percent merlot, 7 percent syrah and 4 percent petit verdot, it still needs three or four years to come together in the bottle before opening.

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Winemaker Notes Cassis, cedar wood, musk, and slate aromas lend well to a powerful and mineral-driven palate. The intensely concentrated 2016 Mount Veeder Cabernet Sauvignon displays a dark, inky red hue. Critical Acclaim James Suckling A very intense, perfectly ripe and seamless cabernet that delivers a wealth of dark berries, blue fruits ad blackberry on the nose with attractively integrated oak spice, earth, black truffle and violet-like perfume. The palate has an extraordinary array of fine, layered tannins and a long fresh and alluringly succulent finish that holds fresh and long. Superb cabernet. Drink or hold. Wine Enthusiast A 100% varietal, this lovely, structured and layered wine tastes distinctly of the appellation—a mix of sage, dust and crushed rock complemented by cedar and dried herb. The fruit is elusively nuanced in red and black currant as well as cassis, concentrated enough to consider further aging. Enjoy from 2026–2030. Cellar Selection.

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Winemaker Notes Upon pouring, the deep-ruby hued 2018 vintage gradually unfolds fragrant aromatics of cassis, violets and complex wood spices, with graphite, thyme and clove also emerging from the glass. Layers of concentrated flavours are revealed across a medium to full bodied frame, with ripe fruit and hints of black olive and cigar, all wrapped by fine-grained tannins and supportive oak, enhancing texture and richness from start to finish. This vintage will benefit and gain additional complexity from careful cellaring over the next 15+ years. Blend: 90% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Merlot, 2% Malbec Critical Acclaim WE95 Wine Enthusiast Villa Maria's top red, a Cabernet Sauvignon-dominant Bordeaux blend, is named for the Maori word for gravel, referring to its famed Gimblett Gravels soils. This is a wine made for the long haul although even now, with ample time open in bottle or decanter, reveals finesse and character. The fruit is dark and fleshy with a spine of leafy green herbs, violet, tomato stem and baking spice. The palate is satiny yet toned and elegant, with linear, taut tannins, and currently quite a lot of oak influence. A worthy addition to any red-lover's cellar. Drink 2025–2045.Cellar Selection RP94 Robert Parker's Wine Advocate The 2018 Ngakirikiri is a blend of 90% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Merlot and 2% Malbec, all aged in 60% new French oak for 20 months. Despite the barrel regime, the concentrated fruit easily comes through, offering up pristine aromas of cassis and plum, later accented on the finish by hints of dark chocolate and vanilla bean. Richly concentrated and velvety in texture, with a long, plush finish, this medium to full-bodied wine should drink well for over a decade.

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Jeb Dunnuck 94 Points: “The 2019 Pinot Noir Russian River Valley is pure and ripe with raspberry liqueur, fresh violets, and elegant wood spice. The palate has a weightless feel, with an elegant structure and fully ripe tannins, fresh red fruit, and a floral lift. Drink it over the next 6-8 years.” Michael Brown: Sparked by my love for old-school workmanship, CHEV pays tribute to the bygone days when artisans hand-wrought their wares to expert precision. Just like we do in our family shop, curating and refining the best grapes from the Russian River Valley to regions beyond. At CHEV, our pursuit is simple: to craft the finest wines that invite you to slow down and savor life’s simple pleasures.” Winery  Notes: “On the nose, Boysenberry and cherry with light pastry cobbler and gentle aromas of savory spice, aged black tea, and vanilla bean..On the palate, Black cherry and juicy red plum intertwined with fresh earth and faint tobacco leaf. A seductive broad texture with vibrant acidity and a silky soft mouthfeel, followed by a suede finish with an earthy characteristic and a balancing high tone. Well-rounded with subtle, finely integrated tannins.”

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Revana, Terroir Series Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, 2017 The 'Terroir Series’ is beautifully textured and an authentically powerful Napa Cabernet from 3 distinctly different single- vineyard terroirs within the AVAs of St. Helena, Calistoga and the Oak Knoll District, each meticulously farmed by Jim Barbour. The winemaker is Thomas Rivers Brown. On the nose: Purple flowers, lilac, raspberry, mocha dust, currant. On the palate: Dark chocolate, graphite, coffee, dried cranberry, marion berry.

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Two hour decant. Deep dark magenta color. Black cherry, pencil lead, sage, wild strawberry, and subtle spearmint and vanilla toffee on the nose. Smooth, tongue drying, medium bodied palate, with soft acidity. Firm, full tannins on the longish finish. Terrific QPR here. Drinks above its price point and there is room to improve in the coming year. Certainly built to drink early.

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Description Decanter Magazine: A muscular wine from an all-female winemaking team. Powerful, structured with strong tannins reinforced by the limestone terroir. Freshness on the finish. Drink 2018-2030 Wine spectator 92 pts This sports very flashy raspberry ganache, pastis-soaked plum and steeped currant fruit, but stays vibrant, thanks to a backdrop of mouthwatering wood spice and a racy graphite spine that really holds the finish tightly. Very solid grip. Best from 2015 through 2025. 2,916 cases made James Sukling 91 pts Attractive pure dark fruit in the nose. Plums, vanilla and wild strawberries. Beautiful bright fruit on the palate. Refined and elegant on the palate with finely knit tannins and good length. Very enjoyable already now, but tannins would benefit from a few more years of aging to soften.

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