2017 Bryant Family Bettina Bryant Red
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Tasting notes
The most ripe and sexy in the lineup, the 2017 Bettina checks in as 71% Cabernet Sauvignon, 19% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Franc, and the rest Petite Verdot. Ripe cassis, currants, crushed violets, and tobacco notes all emerge from the glass, and it hits the palate with a big, exuberant, bombastic profile that still stays flawlessly balance and light on its feet. While it shows mostly fruit at the moment, it has beautiful mid-palate depth as well as building tannins. Drink bottles any time over the coming 25-30 years.
Critic scores
Jeb Dunnuck
Antonio Galloni, Vinous
More reviews and scores
The 2017 Bettina is a powerhouse. Deep and hedonistically rich on the palate, the 2017 is not in the mood to show all of its cards - at least not today - and yet its pedigree is evident. Black cherry, plum, spice, espresso, licorice and new leather all build with time in the glass. In 2017, the Bettina is decidedly unctuous. It also appears to have a bit better balance of fruit, acid and structure next to the Cabernet Sauvignon. Hints of gravel, incense, menthol and pine add further shades of dimension. The 2017 needs time, but it also clearly has potential.
The blend this year is 71% Cabernet Sauvignon, 19% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot. It was aged in French oak, 90% new, and bottled in July 2019. Very deep purple-black colored, the 2017 Bettina Bryant Proprietary Red is a little youthfully subdued to start, soon unfurling to display notes of dark chocolate, fertile loam, beef drippings and wild mushrooms over a core of creme de cassis, plum preserves, wild blueberries and Morello cherries plus a waft of underbrush. Full-bodied, the palate bursts with bold red and black fruit notes, framed by firm, grainy tannins and oodles of freshness, finishing long and perfumed. 450 cases were made.