2017 Arnot-Roberts Cabernet Sauvignon Fellom Ranch
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Tasting notes
Fermented with 30% whole clusters and ambient yeasts. Basket-pressed to French oak (roughly 30% new) for 22 months. Aged for 1 year in bottle before release. 75 cases produced. Aromas of black cherry and tobacco notes with gorgeous floral overtones. Almost explosively juicy in the mouth, with remarkably bright acidity and mouth-coating tannins that billow like cumulus clouds to fill every nook and cranny with a dusty fine-grained texture, even as a core of black cherry and cassis remains tightly wound. Incredibly youthful at this point; it will be a wonderful treat to see how this wine evolves over decades. Outstanding. (AY)
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Jancis Robinson MW
Jancis Robinson MW
More reviews and scores
175 cases made. Dark garnet. Deeply perfumed with black cherry, tobacco, and gorgeous floral overtones. Almost explosively juicy on the palate with remarkably bright acidity and mouth-coating tannins that billow, cloud-like to fill every nook and cranny with fine dust even as a core of black cherry and cassis are tightly wound on the palate. Incredibly youthful at this point, it will be a wonderful treat to see how this wine evolves over decades. Wonderfully fresh and lean even as its fruit and savoury herb notes are intense and powerful. This is old-school Cabernet with little trace of oak and remarkable expression of place. Phenomenal. (AY)
In 2017, the Cabernet Sauvignon Fellom Ranch melds together racy fruit from the warm growing season with the hillside savoriness that is such a calling card of this Santa Cruz Mountains site. The resulting wine is ample and exotically rich, but also tightly wound and in need of cellaring. Some of the finer nuances are perhaps a bit obscured by the fruit, but that in no way detracts from the wine's considerable allure. The 2017 should be a fascinating Cabernet to follow over the next two decades, perhaps more.