2008 Roberta's Reserve

(14.5% alcohol): Medium red. More red than black fruits on the nose, complicated by spices, flowers, underbrush and a hint of maple syrup. Marvelously sweet, plush and layered but not an outsized wine; in fact, this brilliant Merlot is most noteworthy for its inner-mouth lift, minerality and firm acidity. Finishes gripping but not a bit hard, with suave tannins and inexorable palate-staining length. Already very appealing (but decant it if you plan on opening a bottle now) but has the spine for at least another 15 years of further development. Boasts uncanny depth and breadth for a wine from vines that were seven years old. There was a lot of shatter in the estate's Merlot in '08, requiring strict selection, noted Louis Kapcsándy.

(96% merlot with 5% cabernet franc): Deep ruby-red. Powerful mineral-driven aromas of crushed blackberry, black cherry and bitter chocolate. Dense, thick and sweet, and almost painfully intense, with uncommon structure for merlot. With a moderate pH of 3.57, 6.7 g/l total acidity and 14.3% alcohol, this has the balance for a couple decades of evolution in the bottle. Most impressive today on the explosive whiplash of a finish. From merlot vines planted on volcanic rock and clay.

The 2008 Roberta’s Reserve State Lane Vineyard (96% Merlot and 4% Cabernet Franc) is virtually perfect. This offering is just as strong as the 2007, but slightly more forward and irresistible than the backward 2007. It boasts a dense inky/purple color as well as an extraordinary nose of blackberry liqueur intermixed with cocoa, forest floor, graphite and subtle hints of smoke as well as camphor. The wine reveals fresh acids, laser-like precision and an extraordinary plump, fleshy mouthfeel. Already approachable, it should evolve for 20-25+ years. As I have written many times over the last several years, the Kapcsandy estate, which is essentially the old Beringer State Lane Vineyard in Yountville resurrected under the perfectionist philosophy of Lou Kapcsandy, his son, Louis, and wife, Bobbi, is about as good a news story as one can find in Napa Valley. The vineyard, planted with very tight spacing and a north/south exposition by Helen Turley and John Wetlaufer, is impressive in its own right. Yet what the Kapcsandys have done with the fruit from that vineyard with assistance from their consultant, the Pauillac-born Denis Malbec, is nothing short of remarkable. Moreover, they have done it in less than a decade, which proves that fortunes can be made quickly, provided there are three ingredients – incredibly hard work, lots of talent, and a super terroir. These can indeed propel an estate to the stratosphere in less than a decade. The basic second wine of lots culled out from their three top cuvees is called Endre. This is a very good effort as the two most recent vintages suggest. There are three cuvees made from Kapcsandy’s State Lane Vineyard. The Estate Cuvee is generally composed of equal proportions of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot blended with tiny amounts of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. The Roberta’s Reserve, which is named after Lou Kapcsandy’s wife, Bobbi, is their Pomerol-styled Merlot-based wine that usually contains at least 90% Merlot and the rest Cabernet Franc. The Cabernet Sauvignon Grand Vin State Lane Vineyard is a northern Medoc-styled offering usually containing 85% or more Cabernet Sauvignon blended with tiny portions of Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. This estate has duplicated their extraordinary success with the 2007s with very great 2008s. The 2009s from the Kapcsandy’s 15.5-acre State Lane Vineyard are the result of a slightly cooler, larger yielding year. For readers on the mailing list and visitors to the winery, there are several other wines produced. The estate makes a very delicious, dry, deep colored rose from Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, and the 2009 Rose is another noteworthy example. It possesses much more flavor and body than most roses. Kapcsandy also produces a port-styled wine called Vino del Sol. Slightly lower in alcohol than most ports (17.6-18.1%), to date they have made a 2007, 2008 and 2009. They’re good efforts, but hardly at the exhilarating level of quality of their dry estate wines made from Bordeaux varietals. Tel. (707) 948-3100; Fax (707) 948-3106