The Consortium Cabernet Sauvignon represents the highly-anticipated inaugural release for the Band of Vintners. A few years back, my friend and neighbor, Master Sommelier Jason Heller, divulged the details of this project.
Gathered for their recurring tasting group one night, Jason and six wine industry friends decided to pool their resources and make the best, “pound for pound,” quality Cabernet Sauvignon in the Napa Valley. The band purchased premium fruit from a secret, highly sought-after source. Unable to reveal the site, let’s just say if the vineyard was revealed, this wine would go for exponentially more than its modest $35 price tag. Fast-forward to today, as a lucky twist of fate would have it, SommSelect is the first retail outlet to offer this wine. The 2014 Consortium Napa Cabernet has spent most of its life in once-used French oak and was bottled recently. The resulting wine is exactly what great Napa Cabernet should be.
The Consortium Cabernet exhibits a dark crimson core with purple and garnet reflections on the rim. Classic Napa Cabernet aromas of blackcurrant, blackberry liqueur, fresh boysenberry, and black cherry are infused with notes of wet violets, coffee, fresh leather, tobacco, and the ideal touch of high-quality vanilla bean and baking spices. The oak aromas impart just the right nuances and are perfectly integrated and balanced without being overbearing as many Napa examples often are. On the palate, the wine is medium-plus in body and captures pitch-perfect balance with the ideal freshness, soft, silky texture, and integrated, polished tannins that are wrapped around layered flavors of soft black fruit, leather, tobacco, cedar, cocoa, and subtle exotic spices. This incredibly young wine is already stunning in its youth, but will be hitting a sweet spot as the weather cools in the next few months. It’s peak should lie in the next 5-7 years although this beautifully structured wine could even surpass a decade in the cellar if kept well. For a recipe worthy of Napa doing what it does best, try French Laundry’s Thomas Keller’s recipe for Lamb Shanks a la Matignon.