2013 Favia Cerro Sur

Community Tasting Notes (9) Avg Score: 94.7 points

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  1/1/2022 - Mark1npt Likes this wine: 96 Points

  Wow!.....pnp'd into a decanter. Tasted at the outset, a 92+. Just such classic Napa red cab franc fruit and herbs.....decanted for 4 hours before we started into it. Just a beautiful franc nose, with strong fruit....this has delicate florals initially but with strong red fruit. Hour 5 and it starts to turn to red velvet in the mouth and the cab sauv integrates into the cab franc better. A tad hot yet, and there is strong acidity throughout. You have to have this with food right now. 94-95 at this point. By hour 6, the fruit begins to turn a tad coarser in the mouth. I have a couple of these left and think I need to let them sit another 3-5 years at a minimum. '13 was such a strong vintage and there's so much integration yet to go. The acidity alone will take this wine another 20 years, easy.
  
  Addendum: One small glass left in the decanter overnight on the kitchen counter with just a napkin laid across the top of it. Now open 31 hours in total. Muted cab nose primarily of graphite. The wine has fully blossomed into this sweet, soft, silky, chalky minerality beauty. The acidity has calmed down a bit and come into better balance. Still some mild atringency on the ending and a touch more of the taste of iron pan. Drinking like a classic BDX right now. I think I need to up my score a point from 95 to 96 at the least.

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  12/23/2021 - Hi.its.Don.4.Wine Likes this wine: 97 Points

  My Perfect Wine - Part 2 - Birthday Edition
  
  My Seventieth birthday just passed, fortunately, I haven’t! Still alive and kicking, well, alive and moving briskly.
  
  Under some conditions, that landmark of a birthday might shake someone to their core. Not me! As I awoke on that fateful day, I asked that yearly question I ask every year, “do I feel any older?” As I have also made quite clear, the way to optimize the response is to NEVER party and drink the night before, which I did not. Well, only a glass or two of the bubbly.
  
  My meals had been planned for at least a week. Biscuits and gravy using spicy Italian sausage – thank you very much - for breakfast, a simple turkey sandwich for lunch, and the pièce de résistance for dinner, Beef Tenderloin – slow-cooked with Asparagus Topped Baked Potato, and Roasted Onions and Mushrooms, all next to homemade Horseradish sauce.
  
  Even my wine had been planned well before my momentous day.
  
  Favia Cerro Sur 2013
  
  Only a few months ago I ran my post “The Perfect Wine,” paying homage to the 2012 Cerro Sur. The title tells you what I thought of the wine. Much like that review, the title of this post will provide you with my tell as to their 2013.
  
  The 2013 Cerro Sur is a blend of 84% Cabernet Franc from Rancho Chimiles and 16% Cabernet Sauvignon from Meteor, a blend that changes with the vintage, this one being more Cab Franc than 2012. It is brought together by none other than Andy Erickson and his wife, Annie Favia. Seeing 50% new French Oak for nearly 2 years, the wine is bottled unfined and unfiltered, giving way to both its elegance and boldness.
  
  It was the perfect wine for a perfect dinner. Bold, rich, and lush (the wine), with black and blue fruit that combined with the tannins and acidity to balance the wine to perfection (I’m using that phrase a lot I know). Years ago, I predicted, unsuccessfully, that Cabernet Franc was going to be the next “IT” wine. As far as I’m concerned, it was and still is, and under such skillful hands involved in the making of this wine, it will continue to be long into the future.
  
  For die-hard Cabernet Franc fans, like myself, this wine will not disappoint, regardless of vintage, maybe creating your perfect wine as well.
  
  Cheers

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  2/9/2021 - Cailles wrote: 94 Points

  I don‘t touch any of my 2013 Napa wines as they‘re just not yet ready, often muted and closed and sometimes even harsh. I made an exception for my first Cerro Sur as it‘s a mostly Cab Franc wine and hence should be softer and more ready than most Cabernet Sauvignons. And we were not disappointed: with some air the wine was open, ready, soft and sexy. In many categories this wine would deserve a much higher 97+ points rating (it‘s light and airy, complex and very precise), but there is some alcohol heat noticeable which brings the rating down below the 95 point level in my book (half of the party hasn‘t felt the heat, though. It depends on your tolerance for alcohol).
  
  TN: Decadent nose with loads of blackberries and dark cherries, lots of Cabernet Franc herbs, fresh and typical for Napa rather in the medicinal space, smoke. Intense and very precise. On the palate layers after layers of dark blue and black fruit, a wide array of herbs, smoke, earthy notes and crushed stones. An absolute highlight is the super light and airy structure and feel with ultra fine tannins and a high and perfectly integrated acidity with the only downside being the alcohol which is not perfectly masked. Long and intense cherries and herbal driven finish.
  
  Decanting: Not decanted, good from the go but it clearly improved with air, became less wild and more balanced, and more open and sexy. I would advise to give this at least 2 hours in the decanter.
  
  Glass: Conterno Sensory

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  9/13/2020 - MAXIMUM SATISFACTION wrote: 93 Points

  Opened and decanted for 2-4 hours. Like most 13’s right now this is awkward. The ripe fruit is here but just buried by a wall of bitterness and structure. Dark red fruited but needing time.

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  12/28/2019 - Tonythefish Likes this wine: 94 Points

  Has evolved beautifully. Tannins have softened slightly to reveal dark mature fruits, light smoky notes, floral and rosemary scents. Finish was 30 seconds plus. Wine is dark red with medium viscosity

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