{"product_id":"somm1812-il15cs-750","title":"Ilaria, Cabernet Sauvignon","description":"Lest you think we only drink Cru Beaujolais around here, we recently spent a fascinating afternoon tasting a broad range of luxury Napa Valley Cabernets. This group included some big names (and price tags), as well as some lesser-known labels that made a big impression. Of the latter, the clear standout was today’s Ilaria Cabernet Sauvignon, crafted by rising-star winemaker Anna Monticelli.\u003cbr\u003eThis wine stood tall alongside boutique wines costing twice and three times as much—and, in fact, eclipsed many of them. It’s one of the best price-to-quality Napa Cabernets I have ever tasted. Ilaria is a personal passion project for Monticelli, whose full-time winemaking gig is at Piña Napa Valley, and her lengthy resume in the region has exposed her to plenty of first-rate raw material. Using fruit from the Atlas Peak, Howell Mountain, and St. Helena subzones, Monticelli’s 2015 Ilaria has all the concentration one could ask for in a modern Napa Valley red, but also terrific focus and real mineral character. There’s real Cabernet Sauvignon character, too, not just an inky mass of super-ripe fruit. I can’t overstate what a superb value this is, especially given what Cabernet lovers are willing to lay out for some cult labels. It says a lot about Napa that small-production gems like this are lying in wait around every corner!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cdiv\u003eMonticelli has built up an impressive resume over the course of a decade-plus in the Valley. After graduating UC Davis, she moved on to the Sorbonne in France, then to Château Cheval-Blanc in Bordeaux for an eye-opening apprenticeship during the harvest of 2000. Upon returning home to Napa, she spent two years as assistant winemaker at Seavey Vineyards and four more at Bryant Family Vineyards before joining Piña in 2007. Her Ilaria wines, part of the \u003ca target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.invinofelicitas.com\/\"\u003eIn Vino Felicitas\u003c\/a\u003e project she started with her husband, Mario, are named for their daughter, who was born in 2009, the first vintage of this wine. Sourced primarily from vineyards in the volcanic soils of the Atlas Peak subzone, in combines 82% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Cabernet Franc and 6% Merlot aged in French oak \u003cem\u003ebarriques\u003c\/em\u003e—but it is neither an overtly “oaky” nor an over-extracted style. As her experience shows, Monticelli knows Napa Cabernet, and this one has a compact, classic structure reminiscent of great Napa reds from the ‘Paris Tasting’ era.\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003eDon’t get me wrong: This 2015 is a full-bodied wine that floods all the pleasure centers, but it has a very compact, focused feel to it and great balancing freshness. In the glass, it’s an opaque ruby-black with garnet reflections, combining scents of crushed blackberries, cassis, and huckleberry with lots of textbook graphite, tobacco, and cedar notes. There’s also a deep mineral component here—notes of crushed gravel and potting soil—that offers a counterpoint to the abundant fruit. And as I noted above, it didn’t just ‘hang in there’ with some of the elite, high-triple-digit Napa reds it shared our table with—it blew some of them away. Again, I don’t think we’ve offered a more impressive Napa Cabernet all year, and there’s no doubt this wine will age 10-15 years with ease. If you’d like to sneak a bottle or two now, decant it a good hour before service in large Bordeaux stems at 60-65 degrees. The wine has plenty of savor for something grilled or roasted, and more than enough power to handle whatever you throw at it: Given Anna and Mario Monticelli’s Italian leanings, check it out alongside a beef \u003cem\u003ebraciole\u003c\/em\u003e. “In vino felicitas,” indeed—enjoy!","brand":"SommSelect","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40830118723638,"sku":"SOMM1812-IL15CS-750","price":59.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"url":"https:\/\/sommselect.com\/products\/somm1812-il15cs-750","provider":"SommSelect","version":"1.0","type":"link"}