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Palladian, Cabernet Sauvignon

California, United States 2010 (750mL)
$59.00
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Fruit
Earth
Body
Tannin
Acid
Alcohol

Palladian, Cabernet Sauvignon

There’s a difference between power and profundity, and this wine is a great way to understand that difference. Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon has largely come to be defined by power, in that the wines deemed the “best” are most often the ones that are the most powerful.
When I come across profundity in a Napa Cabernet—by which I mean aromatic complexity, and a sense of soil character to complement the ripe fruit and expensive oak—I get excited well beyond what you might expect from such a Eurocentric drinker. I got excited about this 2010 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon from Palladian, which, to my palate, has everything that makes Napa Valley Cabernet great without any excess. Produced at what winemaker David Mahaffey calls “the smallest Estate Winery in the Napa Valley,” Palladian’s 2010 Reserve is an elegant homage to the mid-1970s, “Paris Tasting” era of Napa Valley Cabernet, before proportions became outsized. This is a very serious glass of wine, and one which is only released after extended barrel and bottle aging at its source. The price, meanwhile, had me doing a spit-take—at just $59, this easily outclasses many Cabernets that are two and three times as expensive.
Mahaffey has been making wine in Napa for more than 30 years; he’s a partner in Palladian and also the winemaker for Olivia Brion Wines, making Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from the Wild Horse Valley AVA. He notes that he takes a “Pinot Noir approach” when crafting the Palladian Cabernet, which roughly translates to “gentle fruit handling.” Working with just three acres of vines at Palladian, this is the ultimate in hand-farmed, hand-crafted wine; just 350 cases were produced in the 2010 vintage (about 14 barrels), which could be stored along a single wall in your garage. Yes, this is small production!

Palladian’s vineyards are around a ten-minute stroll from Meadowood Restaurant at the base of Howell Mountain, just off the Silverado Trail. Off the flat, hot Napa Valley floor, the grapes flourish in a slightly cooler microclimate than much of St. Helena, helping to keep them fresh. The vineyard is planted to 85% Cabernet Sauvignon and 15% Cabernet Franc, and Mahaffey co-ferments the hand-harvested grapes in an open-topped one-ton vat. The open-topped fermenter helps him to shed some excess alcohol during the primary fermentation, and the humid aging cellars at Palladian encourage further evaporation of alcohol during his deliberately long cellaring process. This wine spent two years in French oak barrels, of which just 25% were new, then three years in bottle, before release. “We’ve got a silky, well-knit wine that I was able to bottle at 13.9% without losing any concentration,” Mahaffey says.

2010 is one of my favorite California vintages in recent memory due the perfectly balanced season, and Palladian’s is now in its prime. I was immediately taken with this wine’s rich berry fruit, damp violet and chocolate notes tinged with Bordeaux-inspired notes of leather, cedar, tobacco, tar and crushed rock. The wine is classic Napa (rich and lush, luxurious on the palate), then hints at the Old World, with savory notes integrating with exotic oak spice. These flavors exemplify what serious Napa does—balances the tension between earth and fruit. Once poured, the Palladian has a dark garnet core with tangerine around the rim, showing a touch of age. Decant it about 30 minutes before serving in Bordeaux stems at 60-65 degrees. It is just now entering its peak drinking window, but I wouldn’t be surprised with such quality if it showed well past its twentieth birthday. Enjoy a glass while cooking, and another with braised veal cheeks or slow braised short ribs for a night that’ll inspire lingering at the dinner table, and maybe even opening a second bottle.
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Country
United States
Region
California
Sub-Region
United StatesNapa Valley
Soil
Loam
Farming
Sustainable
Blend
85% Cabernet Sauvignon; 15% Cabernet Franc
Alcohol
13.9
OAK
25% New French
TEMP.
60-65
Glassware
Bordeaux Stems
Drinking
Now-2030
Decanting
30 Minutes
Pairing
Braised Short Ribs

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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