2005 Freemark Abbey Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley

The 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon, which is sourced from notable vineyards across Napa Valley, comes in at 83.1% Cabernet Sauvignon, with the rest Merlot, Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc. Not that there is any undue oak on the wine, but it does age for 24 months in French cooperage. Quite backward for a 2005, this opaque purple wine offers up notes of cedar wood, licorice, underbrush, blackcurrants and black cherries. Full-bodied, moderately tannic, but still exceptionally youthful and impressive, this wine is complex and evolved, a Napa version of a Bordeaux St.-Julien.