2018 The Debate, Artalade Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, Bottle (750ml)

JD95+ Coming from a site on Pritchard Hill, the 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Artalade Montagna Vineyards is pure Mountain fruit and reveals a powerful, dense, primordial style that's going to reward bottle age. Dense purple, with impressive purity in its blueberry and black cherry fruits, it offers more tobacco, graphite, and crushed stone-like minerality with time in the glass. Rich, medium to full-bodied, and concentrated on the palate, it wasn't until the second day that this started to offer some complexity and charm, and it's going to require a solid decade of bottle age to hit the early stages of maturity. It will have 30 years or more of ultimate longevity.

JS95 "Fragrant aromas of wild blackberry, blackcurrant leaf, pine, clove and licorice. Crushed walnut and graphite, too. It’s full-bodied, rich and polished with firm, integrated tannins. Serious depth and complexity. Very typical Napa style. Wait a few years. Drink from 2024." JS Dec 2020