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Y. Rousseau, Cabernet Sauvignon, “Le Roi Soleil”

Napa Valley, United States 2013 (750mL)
$85.00
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Fruit
Earth
Body
Tannin
Acid
Alcohol

Y. Rousseau, Cabernet Sauvignon, “Le Roi Soleil”

If you are a wine buyer in the San Francisco Bay Area, a lot of dreamers like Yannick Rousseau walk through your door, hoping you’ll take a few minutes to taste their wines. It’s not unlike the parade of foragers and farmers who show up at the kitchen door in search of the chef, and it can lead to many lasting relationships. We’ve developed one such relationship with Yannick Rousseau, a French expat making a range of small-production delights in Napa and Sonoma (several of which we’ve offered here).
This wine, Yannick’s 2013 “Le Roi Soleil” Cabernet Sauvignon, is the product of long experience with the vineyards of Mount Veeder, whose volcanic soils and relatively cool microclimates have proved time and again to produce powerful yet balanced Napa Cabernet. This is a full-bodied and deeply satisfying red that retains pitch-perfect balance, a quality that’s tempting to chalk up to Yannick’s ‘French-ness’—this is not a “show” wine but rather an honest expression of place, with sane proportions that guarantee it a long life.
Yannick Rousseau was born in Gascony, in southwest France—land of Armagnac and foie gras, among other delicacies—where he obtained his winemaking degree at Toulouse University and made his first wines. He moved to Napa in 1999, starting as assistant winemaker at Newton vineyards (where he worked with famed winemaker Luc Morlet) before moving to Château Potelle on Mt. Veeder. He was at Potelle for more than six years, and when it was sold, he and his Texas-born wife, Susan, went out on their own. Their deep connection to Mt. Veeder forms the core of their wine lineup, but Yannick went further afield in search of great sites as well—the first Y. Rousseau wine ever released was actually a dry white from Colombard (a native grape of Gascony, often used in brandy production), sourced from a vineyard in the Russian River Valley. He also makes several bottlings of California-grown Tannat, a burly red also native to Gascony.

Rousseau’s 2013 “Le Roi Soleil” Cabernet is sourced from a sustainably farmed site at around 2,000 feet elevation on Mt. Veeder—considered the “coolest” of Napa’s mountain appellations due to its proximity to the San Pablo Bay. For all the evident power in this wine, there is also balance and freshness; it is not a wine that weighs you down after one glass. Comprised of 90% Cabernet, and 5% each Merlot and Tannat (which lends its tannic grip), it was fermented using native yeasts and aged for 18 months in French oak barrels (75% new). Only a few hundred cases of this wine are typically made each vintage.

In the glass, this 2013 has an opaque blue-black core moving to ruby/magenta at the rim. The nose is textbook Napa Cabernet, full of rich cassis, black plum, blueberry, and blackberry fruit mixed with notes of damp violet, tobacco, wet stones, fine leather and raw cacao. It is full-bodied and velvety on the palate, with a cassis liqueur viscosity, but it finishes with perfectly balanced acidity and a flourish of floral aromatics. It has the structure to age a good decade more, and I envision it peaking around its 10th birthday, but the wine is stunning now. If enjoying it in the near future, decant it about 60 minutes before serving in large Bordeaux stems, taking care to keep the temperature around 60 degrees (by today’s standards, its alcohol is actually rather moderate, but a cooler serving temperature will help keep the wine's aromatics in perfect harmony). Yannick’s wife, Susan, supplied  her coveted Red-Wine Braised Short Ribs (with Creamy Polenta) recipe attached here, so we’re pretty confident in the pairing. As with the wine itself, we went right to the source. Enjoy!
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Country
United States
Region
Napa Valley
Sub-Region
United StatesMount Veeder
Soil
Volcanic and Sandy Loam
Farming
Sustainable
Blend
Cabernet Sauvignon 90%, Merlot 5%, Tannat 5%
Alcohol
14.5
OAK
French Oak
TEMP.
60
Glassware
Bordeaux Stems
Drinking
Now-2025
Decanting
1 Hour
Pairing
Braised Short Ribs with Creamy Polenta

United States

Washington

Columbia Valley

Like many Washington wines, the “Columbia Valley” indication only tells part of the story: Columbia Valley covers a huge swath of Central
Washington, within which are a wide array of smaller AVAs (appellations).

Oregon

Willamette Valley

Oregon’s Willamette Valley has become an elite winegrowing zone in record time. Pioneering vintner David Lett, of The Eyrie Vineyard, planted the first Pinot Noir in the region in 1965, soon to be followed by a cadre of forward-thinking growers who (correctly) saw their wines as America’s answer to French
Burgundies. Today, the Willamette
Valley is indeed compared favorably to Burgundy, Pinot Noir’s spiritual home. And while Pinot Noir accounts for 64% of Oregon’s vineyard plantings, there are cool-climate whites that must not be missed.

California

Santa Barbara

Among the unique features of Santa Barbara County appellations like Ballard Canyon (a sub-zone of the Santa Ynez Valley AVA), is that it has a cool, Pacific-influenced climate juxtaposed with the intense luminosity of a southerly
latitude (the 34th parallel). Ballard Canyon has a more north-south orientation compared to most Santa Barbara AVAs, with soils of sandy
clay/loam and limestone.

California

Paso Robles

Situated at an elevation of 1,600 feet, it is rooted in soils of sandy loam and falls within the Highlands District of the Paso Robles AVA.

New York

North Fork

Wine growers and producers on Long Island’s North Fork have traditionally compared their terroir to that of Bordeaux and have focused on French varieties such as Cabernet Franc and Merlot.

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