2009 Jones Family Cabernet Sauvignon

The 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate emerges from the glass with juicy red berries, mint, flowers and sweet spices. It, too, is a fairly immediate, plush wine best enjoyed over the next few years.

The 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate emerges from the glass with juicy red berries, mint, flowers and sweet spices. It, too, is a fairly immediate, plush wine best enjoyed over the next few years. Anticipated maturity: 2012-2017. Jones Family Vineyards is a small hillside property located on the lower part of Howell Mountain. The fruit had previously been sold to Stags Leap Winery before the Jones family bottled their first wine with the 2008 vintage. There are two Cabernets; The Sisters is the entry-level wine and is meant to be enjoyed young, while the Estate is the more important of the wines. I found the 2010s much more interesting than the 2009s, although I tasted the 2010s from preliminary rather than final blends. Thomas Rivers Brown and his team make the wines. Tel. (707) 942-0467

Ruby-red. Blackberry, minerals, bitter chocolate and musky espresso on the nose, lifted by a floral topnote. Bright, well-integrated acidity gives shape and verve to the flavors of blackberry, spices and violet. This has a pH of 3.8 but it tastes lower than that. Deeper and more intense than the 2008, finishing with serious tannic structure and persistent black fruits. As winemaker Thomas Brown puts it, "there was less heat in 2009 to melt the tannins."