Mission Codename Janzending shivers
Big (94-96 & 95pt) Scores? Yes.
Rockstar winemaker? You bet.
$77 off the price? Oh yea.
We’re relentlessly hunting for deals and boy have we got a good one today. A stunner, for the serious Cabernet lovers out there. A BLOCKBUSTER, made by a Rockstar winemaker, from hillside fruit sourced from a premier vineyard in Napa. And it’s yours at 47% off no less! That’s $77 savings PER BOTTLE.
This is the way.
Has ALL the right stuff, starting with the vineyard. Bacio Divino makes three single-vineyard Cabernets, each from its own rightfully incredible location. Each sparing no expense. This beauty comes entirely from hillside fruit in Cloudy’s Vineyard, which sits at the edge of the Vaca mountains, not far from Hourglass Vineyard. The vines struggle to produce tiny clusters, with thick skins, and each berry contains neutron star like density of fruit inside…
Then there’s the winemaker - Kirk Venge!! How many 95-100 point wines has he made?? We lost count. All we know is he’s a Cab wiz, the guy you call to extract that core of supergiant flavor from your prized grapes. Like that endless silk handkerchief trick, he somehow teases an Amazonian expanse of rich fruit and dense flavor building upwards into a skyscraper-like structure. Waves of warm mulberries, rich cassis, violet tinted blackberry jam, sweet herbs, torrefaction, and tobacco - it’s all there in spades. No expense spared here, raised in a mix of 100% new French Oak Taransaud, Gamba and Sylvain barrels (tastes just how you like it). Fine-grained tannins suggest it has years of life ahead - a decade or two easy. A few extra years in the bottle will reward handsomely but it’s oh so irresistible now.
For those who like to map things out, Cloudy’s is PRIME high elevation Napa fruit, sitting in a canyon between Switchback Ridge and Hourglass.
All the serious Cabernet hounds are already grabbing their share - don’t blink or you’ll miss it!
94-96 points – Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate
“A barrel sample, the 2016 Janzen Cloudy’s Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon has a very deep purple-black color and vibrant nose of crushed black currants and black plums with hints of cedar, black soil, Ceylon tea and bay leaves. The medium to full-bodied palate is firm, muscular and offers wonderful tension, with buckets of expressive, freshly crushed black fruit flavors and wonderfully ripe tannins, finishing long.”
95 points – Jeb Dunnuck
“From a site not far from the Hourglass Vineyard, the 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Janzen Cloudy’s Vineyard is upfront and charming, with full-bodied notes of macerated black cherries, cedarwood, chocolate, and licorice. It’s a mouthfilling, sexy, opulent wine that grows with time in the glass, has solid mid-palate depth, building tannins, and a great finish. Drink it any time over the coming 15-20 years.”
What the Winery Says
2016 Cloudy's Vineyard Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
- Winemaker
- Kirk Venge
- Varietal
- 100% Cabernet Sauvignon
- Vintage
- 2016
- Appellation
- Calistoga, Napa Valley
- Vineyard
- Cloudy’s Estate Vineyard, planted in 2000
- Colne / roootstock
- 336 on 110R
- Altitude
- 450-500 ft above Dutch Henry Canyon
- Soils
- Sandy loam, volcanic rock and obsidian
- Alcohol
- 15.1%
- Total acidity
- 6.9 g/L
- pH
- 3.79
- Aging
- 28 months
- Barrels
- 100% new French oak (Taransaud, Gamba, Sylvain from Allier & Tronçais)
- Release Date
- April 1, 2019
- Production
- 8 barrels