2019 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
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Tasting notes
Since its first vintage in 2010, Napa estate Memento Mori has quickly risen up the ranks to become one of the region’s most consistent performers. As the name suggests, their philosophy is that life is too short not to make the best wine from the best vineyards. This 2019 is a blend of some of Napa’s finest sites including Beckstoffer Las Piedras, Beckstoffer Dr. Crane, Weitz, Oakville Ranch and Vine Hill. The wine has a beautifully complex nose. It has a great mix of savoury, bloody, iodine tones, cool fruit aromas, subtle toasted spice, and fresh leather. The palate is riper than the nose suggests, and packs a punch with a huge level of fruit concentration. The tannins are exquisitely glossy and glide across the palate, while bringing depth and structure to the palate. There is a lovely intensity of flavour, power and density making for a very classic top-end Napa packed full of black fruit, milk chocolate and violet floral tones.
Critic scores
Average Score
Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW, Wine Advocate
Jeb Dunnuck
More reviews and scores
Another wine that will be a candidate for perfection in 7-8 years, the 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon comes from a mix of sites (Dr. Crane, Las Piedras, Vine Hill Ranch, Weitz, and Oakville Ranch) and spends 22 months in new barrels. Reminding me of the 2016, it has remarkable purity in its cassis and darker fruits as well as some obvious minerality, full-bodied richness, perfect balance, and building, subtle notes of violets, graphite, and chocolate. A brilliant wine, hide bottles for 4-6 years and enjoy over the following two decades or more.
Made of 100% Cabernet Sauvignon and deep garnet-purple in color, the 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon opens somewhat reluctantly with cedar and baking spice scents, eventually giving way to a tantalizing core of Black Forest cake, blackcurrant cordial and candied violets with a waft of black raspberries. The tightly wound, medium to full-bodied palate is taut with ripe black fruits and a fine-grained textured, delivering loads of perfumed layers on the long finish. Stunning.