Price: $21.99
Sale Price: $16.97
This wine is authentic: authentic to the core. One of the few Prohibition survivors in California, the Pedroncelli winery has been farming grapes and producing wines in the Dry Creek Valley since 1927. The Dry Creek subzone of Sonoma County is best known for its remarkable old vine Zinfandels but in 1965 the brothers, John and Jim, planted Pedroncelli’s first Cabernet Sauvignon Vineyard: notice the exquisite label memorializing this event. Now, sixty years later we get to taste the fruition of their labors. Let’s first look at the care and attention that goes into producing this wine. A classic Bordeaux blend of 83% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% Merlot, 6% Cabernet Franc and 4% Petit Verdot, all sustainably farmed, was harvested from the northern end of Dry Creek Valley just a mile from the winery. Once at the crush pad, the grapes are de-stemmed and cold-soaked for 48 hours then fermented in stainless steel tanks. During this time, to get the best color and flavor, the juice is circulated over the cap daily and gently macerated to extract the color and flavors from the skins. The new wine is then pressed and stored until barreled in the winter. The separate lots are then aged in French oak barrels for fourteen months to develop smoothness and complexity. So, this wine from a superb provenance, produced with a remarkable attention to detail, enfolds within its liquid chamber generations of learned expertise. Now look at the price! And of course, most important of all, as you prepare to grill your short ribs, steaks and/or lamb, this wine is intensely delicious. Aromas of cassis, spicy oak, and mocha introduce this medium-bodied Cabernet Sauvignon. Flavors are framed by black cherry and plum, toasty soft tannins with a hint of dried cooking herbs. Great structure combined with a rounded and toasted oak finish with lingering blackberry notes. You can drink this now or cellar it up to five more years to see what mysterious complexities time-in-the-bottle might reveal.
