2006 Blankiet Estate Rive Droite Paradise Hills Vineyard
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Tasting notes
The 2006 Rive Droite reveals elegant, attractive, plum, black cherry, coffee, and wood spice notes offered in a lush, full-bodied style meant to be drunk over the next 7-8 years. This sensational estate is situated on the hillside behind Dominus’ large Napanook Vineyard. Created by Claude and Katherine Blankiet in the mid-nineties, I have liked these wines since their debut vintage. They now have 16 acres under vine, and the winemaking is overseen by super-star viticulturists David Abreu and Martha McClellan-Levy as well as consultant Michel Rolland. Their secondary label, called Rive Droite, uses a large portion of their Merlot crop, and the flagship offering, the Paradise Hills Vineyard Proprietary Red is dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon. Tel. (707) 963-2001; Fax (707) 963-2012
Critic scores
Average Score
Robert Parker
Stephen Tanzer, Vinous
More reviews and scores
(a 60/40 blend of merlot and cabernet sauvignon) Good deep, bright ruby-red. Highly aromatic nose combines mulberry, boysenberry, tobacco and flowers. Intensely flavored and sweet, with a scented quality to the fruit-driven flavors of ripe plum, mulberry and flowers. For all its breadth and sweetness this also boasts excellent tannic structure and grip. Beginning with vintage 2007, this wine is likely to include bits of petit verdot and cabernet franc (the Blankiets T-budded some of their merlot vines on rocky soil).
Ruby-red. Musky aromas of currant, tobacco, licorice, minerals, mocha and coffee. Creamy-smooth and broad, with captivating flavors of currant and graphite. Can't match the flagship wine for sheer depth of flavor but this one boasts lovely breadth, a seamless texture and fully ripe and smooth tannins, not to mention terrific persistence.