Very powerful wine. Nice balance and smooth. Raspberry, coffee, and tobacco. Chocolate covered raspberries. I had this with the 2014. I prefer the 2014 slightly, but it is probably because of the age and some secondary characteristics coming out. Very balanced and drinking well for a young wine.
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Polished and suave, but not a fruit bomb. There are nuanced savory notes and minerality amid dark hedonistic fruits. I thought this was pretty delicious.
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91% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Merlot from eight appellations, eleven vineyards, and 32 individual wine lots, with the core being Mount Veeder and Howell Mountain, supported by Spring Mountain, Diamond Mountain, St. Helena, and Stags Leap. 32 lots vinified and aged separately for 20 months in 100% French oak. Unfined, Unfiltered Alcohol: 14.5% Abv
Cardinale Winery is a part of Jackson Family Wines. Winemaker: Christopher Carpenter since 2001. A University of Illinois football defensive lineman, UC Davis graduate, president and chairman of the Napa Valley Youth Symphony.
A(ccuracy)=2: Med deep crimson/ruby. Seductive cassis and cedar. B(alance)=3: Distinctive components in harmony. C(omplexity)=3: Dark berries, toast, petals, cacao, tobacco, mineral. D(epth)=2: Tantalizing mouthfeel. Full palette and lingering finish.
Wine Tally Score [2,3,3,2] = 10/10
Prime (albeit expensive) example of blending as orchestration!
For story-telling label graphics, see: [https://www.instagram.com/p/Cm3MZuSy98n/] [https://www.instagram.com/WineTally/] For video explanation (in 8 languages), see Wine Tally on [https://www.youtube.com]
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This graceful and lively mountain Cabernet blend is the best young Cardinale I have ever tasted. At the three-year mark, this is more accessible than the 2018, more layered than the 2017, more elegant than the 2016, and more generous than the 2015. I know that blends conflict with the turf / terroir superstructure of our modern Napa moment, but combining grapes from numerous places (um, diversification) provides a flexibility that (in the right hands, with the right materials) can yield greatness. This is such a wine.
Dark violet in color and medium in body, the wine offers evocative aromas of sour cherry, fresh leather, coffee grounds, and trail dust. The flavors are spicy but integrated, with notes of raspberry, dried strawberry, espresso, and eucalyptus, with an elegant finish that carries a rush of acidity and tannin - but doesn't pucker the mouth or stain the teeth. Blend of 91% Cabernet Sauvignon and 9% Merlot. Drawn from 87.5% mountain sites (36% Spring, 27.5% Diamond, 16% Howell, 5.5% Veeder, 2.5% Atlas) and 12.5% valley floor (9% Yountville, 2.5% St. Helena, 1% Stag's Leap). 14.5% alcohol. Drink in 2023 or later.
P.S. For me, Cardinale was a gateway (drug) into mountain wines. Yes, the polish and generosity welcome you in, but then you are no longer on the valley floor: there is a spicy, wild, punchy, prickly, and dusty energy that does not come from the low places (where the whiskey drowns and the beer chases... what a song!). No, this wine comes from elsewhere. You may later explore, as if through the Children's Gate, a variety of mountaintops (e.g., Howell, Pritchard, Veeder, Spring), but here is a great place to start the ascent.
P.S.S. I tasted this on the same night as a 2019 Realm Houyi (from Pritchard Hill), which tasted more ripe and less pure - all a little cloudy. Both should be stellar wines with time, but the Cardinale had the early edge - something that made me think that, to paraphrase my least favorite college football coach, maybe there is some truth in the blend, the blend, the blend...
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4/20/2024 - RickyT12 Likes this wine: 94 Points
Very powerful wine. Nice balance and smooth. Raspberry, coffee, and tobacco. Chocolate covered raspberries. I had this with the 2014. I prefer the 2014 slightly, but it is probably because of the age and some secondary characteristics coming out.
Very balanced and drinking well for a young wine.
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3/11/2023 - husslein wrote:
Had @ Likos
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3/2/2023 - jviz wrote: 94 Points
Polished and suave, but not a fruit bomb. There are nuanced savory notes and minerality amid dark hedonistic fruits. I thought this was pretty delicious.
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10/6/2022 - WineTally Likes this wine:
91% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Merlot
from eight appellations, eleven vineyards, and 32 individual wine lots,
with the core being Mount Veeder and Howell Mountain, supported by
Spring Mountain, Diamond Mountain, St. Helena, and Stags Leap.
32 lots vinified and aged separately for 20 months in 100% French oak.
Unfined, Unfiltered
Alcohol: 14.5% Abv
Cardinale Winery is a part of Jackson Family Wines.
Winemaker: Christopher Carpenter since 2001.
A University of Illinois football defensive lineman, UC Davis graduate,
president and chairman of the Napa Valley Youth Symphony.
A(ccuracy)=2: Med deep crimson/ruby. Seductive cassis and cedar.
B(alance)=3: Distinctive components in harmony.
C(omplexity)=3: Dark berries, toast, petals, cacao, tobacco, mineral.
D(epth)=2: Tantalizing mouthfeel. Full palette and lingering finish.
Wine Tally Score [2,3,3,2] = 10/10
Prime (albeit expensive) example of blending as orchestration!
For story-telling label graphics, see:
[https://www.instagram.com/p/Cm3MZuSy98n/]
[https://www.instagram.com/WineTally/]
For video explanation (in 8 languages), see
Wine Tally on [https://www.youtube.com]
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4/15/2022 - ng1111 wrote:
Hohman birthday fift
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4/5/2022 - msuwine wrote: 96 Points
This graceful and lively mountain Cabernet blend is the best young Cardinale I have ever tasted. At the three-year mark, this is more accessible than the 2018, more layered than the 2017, more elegant than the 2016, and more generous than the 2015. I know that blends conflict with the turf / terroir superstructure of our modern Napa moment, but combining grapes from numerous places (um, diversification) provides a flexibility that (in the right hands, with the right materials) can yield greatness. This is such a wine.
Dark violet in color and medium in body, the wine offers evocative aromas of sour cherry, fresh leather, coffee grounds, and trail dust. The flavors are spicy but integrated, with notes of raspberry, dried strawberry, espresso, and eucalyptus, with an elegant finish that carries a rush of acidity and tannin - but doesn't pucker the mouth or stain the teeth. Blend of 91% Cabernet Sauvignon and 9% Merlot. Drawn from 87.5% mountain sites (36% Spring, 27.5% Diamond, 16% Howell, 5.5% Veeder, 2.5% Atlas) and 12.5% valley floor (9% Yountville, 2.5% St. Helena, 1% Stag's Leap). 14.5% alcohol. Drink in 2023 or later.
P.S. For me, Cardinale was a gateway (drug) into mountain wines. Yes, the polish and generosity welcome you in, but then you are no longer on the valley floor: there is a spicy, wild, punchy, prickly, and dusty energy that does not come from the low places (where the whiskey drowns and the beer chases... what a song!). No, this wine comes from elsewhere. You may later explore, as if through the Children's Gate, a variety of mountaintops (e.g., Howell, Pritchard, Veeder, Spring), but here is a great place to start the ascent.
P.S.S. I tasted this on the same night as a 2019 Realm Houyi (from Pritchard Hill), which tasted more ripe and less pure - all a little cloudy. Both should be stellar wines with time, but the Cardinale had the early edge - something that made me think that, to paraphrase my least favorite college football coach, maybe there is some truth in the blend, the blend, the blend...
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