Wines

Martha McClellan-Levy, the wine consultant for Blankiet and Sloan, and Bob Levy, longtime winemaker at Harlan Estate, make up the husband and wife team behind this extraordinary vineyard designed to produce about 400 cases of a blend of 90% Cabernet Sauvignon and the rest Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. Planted on the steep volcanic soils of Diamond Mountain at 500-600 foot elevation, with 2,900 vines per acre, this vineyard is planted as tightly as one is likely to find in Napa Valley.

Winemaker notes
Uncompromising viticultural practices and meticulously detailed vinification rewarded us with a wine of great concentration and ripeness. The round supple tannin sin the 2005 Levy & McClellan are the result of the cool growing conditions and the extended ripening. As the wine develops, the expression of the site where it is grown continues to come to the forefront. Accentuated by the low yield in a year known for more generosity, combined with 26 months in barrel, the result is a profoundly concentrated, supple and full-bodied wine.

99 pts CWA (California wine advisor) 
It doesn’t get any better than 2005 Levy & McClellan Cabernet Sauvignon, an utterly vivid, breathtaking wine, the 2005 is built like a thoroughbred with perfect balance and overall sense of harmony ready to deliver extreme pleasure tonight or anytime over the next ten years. The opaque purple/onyx color is followed by intense, soaring aromas of crème de cassis, in addition to blueberry, melted chocolate and hints of eucalyptus. Representing the essence of cassis liqueur intermixed with blackberries, vanillin, exotic spices, and roasted coffee, this Cabernet is cashmere-like in quality and texture. The mesmerizing finish includes notes of graham cracker as well as Toblerone that dazzles the palate with finesse for a full minute. Wow!

WHO IS THE BOXER?

‘Mollydooker’ is old Aussie slang for a left handed boxer and our Boxer always punches well above its Fruit Weight™. Did you notice he has two left-handed gloves?

TASTING NOTES:

Rich and deep, the 2021 Boxer is both elegant and powerful, with beautiful notes of fresh plum, mocha and liquorice lifting out of the glass. A soft plummy mouthfeel, well measured tannins and slightly toasted oak compliment the rich fruit, creating a wine with many layers.

TECHNICAL NOTES:

The grapes were grown on vineyards in McLaren Vale and Langhorne Creek. The Boxer has been Barrel fermented and matured in 100% American oak, using 45% new, 25% one year old, and 30% two year old barrels. The required Marquis Fruit Weight™ for the Lefty Series is 65% – 75%. The Actual Fruit Weight for 2021 The Boxer is 68%.

Alcohol: 15.5%

Residual Sugar: 0.6 (g/L)

pH: 3.69

MAY-BRITT & DENIS MALBEC, formerly of Château Latour, have created the wines of Notre Vin to honor their favorite California terroirs. Nearly a decade of consulting with Napa and Sonoma Valleys’ finest wineries has given this team an in-depth understanding of the region’s diverse vineyards and microclimates. They have carefully selected vineyards in the Napa Valley, including Howell Mountain, and along the Sonoma Coast that yield grapes of concentration and balance, and they interpret this fruit through a legacy of Bordeaux winemaking experience that spans generations.

Notre Vin, which means “our wine” in French, produces a Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon, a Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon sourced from the Howell Mountain foothills, a Rosé from Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon, and a Burgundian-style Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir. All wines are crafted in very limited quantities.

2007 tasting notes 
This dark garnet Cabernet Sauvignon from the 2007 vintage exhibits a fabulous nose of crushed rock, graphite and cedar, layers of sweet black and blue fruits intermixed with cocoa powder, walnut, fresh almonds and scents of freshly roasted coffee. In the mouth this wine shows concentration, great richness and volume with a sense of freshness and energy together with that noble sweetness of tannin with stunning purity as well as a layered sensual finish. The aftertaste leaves you with delicious flavors of blood orange and tangerine. When young, our 2007 Howell Mountain was massively tannic and just recently started to open up. It is a beauty that can be enjoyed now, particularly with decanting, however it will benefit from more time in the cellar.

Baffonero takes its name from a vineyard, 100% Merlot, that was one of the first to be planted at Rocca di Frassinello. The company was born of a joint venture between Castellare di Castellina and Domaines Baron de Rothschild-Lafite, the most famous chateau in the world. The Baffonero vineyard lies below the winery designed by Renzo Piano, on terrain with perfect exposure.

With a heady and compelling mix of ultra-ripe red and black fruit layered with notes of smoked herbs and exotic spices, the full-throttle 2013 Schrader T6 is the most provocative wine in our portfolio. The layers of black fruit continue to dance with the spice on the palate and lead to an incredibly pleasurable mouthfeel with a finish that lasts a lifetime. A perennial stunner, in the words of winemaker Thomas Brown, “The Schrader T6 is all about everything in abundance and everything in perfect balance.”

• Tasting Notes

  With a heady and compelling mix of ultra-ripe red and black fruit layered with notes of smoked herbs and exotic spices, the full-throttle 2013 Schrader T6 is the most provocative wine in our portfolio. The layers of black fruit continue to dance with the spice on the palate and lead to an incredibly pleasurable mouthfeel with a finish that lasts a lifetime. A perennial stunner, in the words of winemaker Thomas Brown, “The Schrader T6 is all about everything in abundance and everything in perfect balance.”

• Accolades

  98 Pts. “The 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon T6, which is clone 6, offers more barbecue smoke, roasted meats and oodles of creme de cassis and blackberry. It is rich, full-bodied, intense, and stunningly pure and well-balanced. This is another tour de force from the Schraders and Thomas Rivers Brown. It should drink well for 25-30 years as well.”
  — Robert Parker, The Wine Advocate

  96 Pts. “Very exotic aromas of tobacco leaf, Thai green chili, black currant and blueberry. Full body, chewy and powerful tannins. Fresh and clean. Muscular and powerful. Better in 2020 when it comes together.”
  — James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com

95 points Wine Enthusiast
Representing a breathtaking advancement over the ’07, Sinatra’s 2008 Cab is simply delicious. It’s fleshy and fat in texture, with a glyceriney richness that makes it almost oily and that, when combined with caramelized oak, turns into nougat. The blackberry, cherry and cassis fruit flavors rise to the occasion. This is truly a stunningly good Cabernet.

93 points Int’l Wine Cellar
Bright red-ruby. Ripe, soil-driven aromas of cherry, loam, licorice, minerals, bitter chocolate and flowers. A suave, juicy midweight with no excess fat to its pliant flavors of black cherry and flowers. Boasts excellent definition and balance. Finishes with firm but suave tannins and lovely persistence. Classy wine.

90 points Wine Advocate
 I loved the Sinatra Family Estates- 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon, and the 2008 is another successful effort, although perhaps not quite as riveting as the 2007. A joint project between the Sinatra family and some people in Las Vegas, the 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon possesses a dense ruby/purple color in addition to a sweet bouquet of black currants, cedar and spice, an appealing texture and lushness, medium to full body and a velvety texture. This delicious, complex, evolved 2008 is ideal for drinking over the next 10-15 years.

Talley Vineyards is a family owned and operated winery that specializes in estate grown Chardonnay and Pinot Noir ideally suited for the climate and soils of the Arroyo Grande and Edna Valleys.

92 points Int’l Wine Cellar
Saturated red. Deeper and darker in character than the foregoing wines, displaying scents and flavors of black raspberry, bitter cherry and violet. Then brighter on the back end, finishing with sweet red and dark berry qualities and intense spiciness. This should be really interesting with a few more years of bottle age. Knowing how well Talley’s pinots age, I wouldn’t hesitate to put this wine away for another ten years.

90 points Connoisseurs Guide
From its intense, well-extracted aromas of black-cherries, sweet spice and cream to its very solid, keenly defined fruit flavors, this is a Pinot Noir that keys first and foremost on fruit. It is a touch simple when compared to its mates, with tannin and heat in the offering after a rounded start. It may not achieve a great deal of complexity over time, but it could still do with some polish and deserves a few years of cellaring.

90 points Wine Enthusiast
Ripe, flashy raspberry and cherry jam fruit marks this young, elegant Pinot Noir. It feels fine and sensual in the mouth, with a silkiness brightened by Edna Valley acidity.