2019 Accendo Cellars, Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, Bottle (750ml)

RP98+ Sourced from six different Napa Valley vineyards and a blend of 86% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Cabernet Franc and 6% Petit Verdot, the 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon from Accendo is a dark, cassis-laden effort tinged with violets and black tea. Full-bodied, rich, velvety and tannic, it shows lovely harmony and structure, ample but not overdone concentration and tremendous length and elegance.

DR98 Pure red berry fruit leads from the glass intermixed with heady cedar spices. Full-bodied, revealing a fantastic mid-palate depth of concentration with a spectacular vein of crushed stone minerality. The ripe, bright, red berry fruit is plush, silken, laced with brown spices and the characteristic freshness of the 2016 vintage. The tannins are fine and silky, and the finish reveals elegant cedarwood and baking spices. The Cabernet Franc came from Oakville Ranch and the old Reverery site on Diamond Mountain. The Cabernet Sauvignon comes from Vine Hill Ranch and Sleeping Lady Vineyard. In 2016, Nigel Kinsman assumed the red winemaking for Accendo immediately preceding harvest. Francoise Peschon, who he has collaborated with since their days at Araujo Estate together in 2010, ‘fermented the Accendo reds and then passed the baton to me,’ Kinsman told me. This vintage also marks the first year of crushing grapes at the Wheeler Farms facility in St. Helena. In 2014, Bart and Daphne Araujo and partners purchased the parcel of land on Zinfandel Lane, now Wheeler Farms.