2016 Alpha Omega Cabernet Sauvignon Drew Vineyard
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Tasting notes
A chewy and solid wine with crushed stones and dark berries, blueberries and lavender. Full body and big, but austere and focused. Mountain fruit. Sweet and sour undertone. Needs two or three years to soften. Exciting.
Critic scores
Average Score
James Suckling
Jeb Dunnuck
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The 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Drew Vineyard (100% Cabernet) is deep garnet-purple in color and reveals gregarious warm plums, spice cake and Black Forest cake scents with compelling touches of blueberries, tilled soil, wild sage and violets. Medium to full-bodied, the palate has a rock-solid foundation of firm, grainy tannins and oodles of freshness framing bags of opulent fruit accented by earth and mineral layers, finishing long. 180 cases produced.
The 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Drew comes from a site on Mount Veeder and saw the standard barrel fermentation and 22 months in 80% new French oak that’s favored by winemaker Jean Hoefliger. Lots of cassis, bay leaf, and floral notes all soar from the glass of this deep purple-colored effort. Offering more minerality and crushed rock on the palate, full-bodied richness and depth, and terrific integration of its fruit, tannins, and acidity, give this beautiful Cabernet 2-3 years of bottle age and it should evolve for two decades.
The 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Drew Vineyard is a new wine in this range. Powerful and enveloping on the palate, the Drew is quite brooding in personality. Scorched earth, smoke, lavender, chocolate, French oak and rose petal add layers of nuance throughout. It would be nice to see a little more Howell Mountain character. Hopefully that will come in future vintages.