This wine is a blend of 37% Cabernet Sauvignon, 29% Petite Sirah, 29% Syrah, and 5% Merlot, all sourced from the Caton Vineyard in the foothills of the Sonoma Valley. The wine was aged for 18 months in French oak, and a total of 509 cases were bottled in April of 2008.
This wine is a deep, inky-purple color, barely fading to garnet at the edge. On the nose, it offers up potent, brooding aromas of blackberry, black currant, and plum sauce, with accents of creosote, hoisin, cocao, and toasty oak. The wine is smooth on the attack, but plush and powerful on the palate with great concentration and extract. Intense flavors of dark berry, cherry, and plum fruit coat the palate, carried on ripe tannins and decent acidity. Definitely fruit driven, but accents of melted licorice, leather, vanilla, earth and oak add plenty of interest and complexity. The depth of flavor leaves the dark fruit core reverberating on the palate for a long time on the finish.
This is another real powerhouse of a North Coast red wine, that somehow marries full-throttle intensity with elegance. Given the Sonoma Valley provenance and mixed-bag blend, you almost want this one to taste pleasantly rustic, but the pedigree of the fruit shows through in a deft display of power and finesse. Once again, my food pairing thoughts on this wine turn to red meats and hard cheeses - like a classic beef tenderloin and bearnaise.
$110 as a library wine on the winery website is a bit much, but I found this bottle at retail in the $40 range, which is a fair deal for a real killer red wine.
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