After this morning’s Calluna Estate offer–a gift bottle that will satisfy most of the wine lovers in your life–we’re pulling out all the stops. Heimark’s 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon is the bottle for that person who’s already got a cellar full of blue chip collectibles, for your friend who wants to take the leap into the echelon of truly elite wine, for when you want to grace your holiday table with one of the most profound American wine experiences you can have. Here, in one bottle, is a veritable who’s who of the Napa Cabernet cult: the minds behind Harlan and Scarecrow, the fruit for multiple 100-point treasures from Lewis and Lail, the winemaking hand who guided Araujo Estate to stardom. No less than Antonio Galloni, maybe the most revered Napa critic working today, calls it “exquisite.” Ready to drink now, ready to slumber for decades in the cellar, this is peak Napa Cab profundity to wow the most jaded wine lover. Just make sure you’re there when they open the bottle!
In 1997, Libby and Craig Heimark moved to a recently-purchased property in Dutch Henry Canyon, just outside of Calistoga. At first, they had no plans to plant the site; it was meant to just be, in Craig’s words, “a hidden, earthy, and peaceful” home. But upon retiring from his Bay Area career, neighbors – including more than a few famed Napa consultants – convinced him to plant the 14-acre site. This was no lackadaisical retirement hobby though. The Heimarks enlisted Michael Wolf, the vineyard manager at Scarecrow and the man tasked with rejuvenating the legendary To Kalon, to oversee their farming. Before making their own wine from the fruit, the Heimarks sold it, and it went on to produce legendary (and extremely expensive) bottlings from the likes of Lewis Cellars and Eisele Vineyard.
The Heimark vineyard itself sits on a southwest-facing slope, the result of an ancient landslide, and is bounded on three sides by native forest. Heavily fractured, volcanic soils provide little vigor to the Cabernet vines, forcing them to plunge their roots deep in the hunt for nutrients. The resulting fruit is intensely concentrated and rich, yet buttressed by freshness thanks to the daily morning mists that blanket the vineyard. Once in the cellar, the fruit is shepherded into bottle by Françoise Peschon. Françoise is a quiet force of nature in Napa, the guiding hand behind Accendo, Vine Hill Ranch, and Araujo’s legendary fourteen-year run before that estate’s sale to Chateau Latour.
The 2017 Heimark Cabernet is ready to go right now, but feel free to decant for a few hours if you’d really like it to sing at the dinner table. It pours a lucid purple with ruby highlights, and with six years of age on it, the nose is beginning to unfurl into an absolute beauty. Redcurrants, blackcurrant, blackberry liqueur, and purple plum fruit lead into anise, cedar, and pipe tobacco, all underlain with a throughline of volcanic smoke. Litheness and elegance are the signatures of the palate, rounded out by incredible polish that highlights the site’s capacity for plushness and freshness. It closes with sandy, fine-grained tannin, the structure making it perfect for a special meal right now, but also promising years and years of development in the cellar. It hits every cult Napa Cab note you could ask for. There are precious few wines we’d spend this lavishly on, but Heimark’s 2017 is worth every penny and then some.
