When visting with Matt Wenke, Two Hands winemaker last month in Barossa, he spoke about a venture in Napa, though no bottles were on-hand to sample.  Email announcing inaugural vintage just arrived, which appears to have this as a venture with Outpost wines and Bob Egelhoff, though Thomas Brown from Outpost is the winemaker, not Egelhoff.  Will add in that Two Hands was an amazing visit, and Matt pulled out all the stops to give Mrs davidandrose and myself an incredible visit, with multiple vintages of Ares/Aphrodite/Aerope. 

 

95% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Cabernet Franc.
90% Howell Mountain, 10% Spring Mountain.

Strong deep purple to black in colour.   A lifted and complex bouquet of char, earth, coffee, moss rock, cola and chocolate with an interesting slight dried herb element.

Showing concentration, good volume and weight on entry, the fruit is very juicy and balances well with the dense ripe black fruit flavours and underpinning subtle, high quality French oak. The back palate integration is long and even with a lovely soft and dry finish. This wine is drinking beautifully from release and will age well in the medium term of 7 to 8 years.

 

Brilliant inky black. Lifted and complex, showing aromas of black fruits, dried herbs, cola, earth, coffee beans, chocolate and charcoal.

Excellent concentration and complexity, voluminous and weighty on first entry, the fruit characters are juicy and balanced by dense and ripe black fruits underpinned by subtle, high quality French oak.  The back palate integrates seamlessly, is long and even, finishing dry and soft in the mouth.  The wine is drinking beautifully from release and will age well in the medium term, 7-9 years in good cellaring conditions.

 

Dense, purple black colour that stains the glass.  Aroma: Loads of plum, dusty cinnamon, perfume, smoked herbs backed by lashings of blackcurrants with an amazing purity and lush density, the benchmark for great Cabernet Sauvignon.

Palate: Big, sweet and coating fruit with very fine tannins continuing to a very long, seamless finish. Both shiraz and cabernet sauvignon components float around each other and are perfectly balanced. The wine will easily cellar for the long term due to the abundance of fruit tannin that will take a long time to flesh out and soften. It will reward with 15+ years in a good dark and constant cellar, there is so much packed in here it may well last longer.

I wonder how the aussie wine travels to napa?  Barrell?