Today’s wine is sure to be a smash hit with our Operatives! Here at Wine Spies HQ, our entire tasting panel was unanimous in declaring today’s rich, concentrated Martellotto Wines 2016 Happy Canyon of Santa Barbara La Bomba Cabernet Sauvignon one of the best wines that we’ve tasted all year!

Fruit and spice and everything nice on the nose, with aromas of black cherry, cassis, cherry bark, cedar, dark spice, black licorice, subtle tobacco and a hint of cracked pepper. Bold and concentrated on the palate, leading with a truckload of dark fruit flavors of blackberry preserve, black cherry reduction, grilled plum, and cassis, followed by dark spice, hard leather, black licorice, molasses and cracked pepper.

This wine was made by winemaker, Michael Roth, whose early career found him learning from two of the best minds in contemporary winemaking, Nils Venge, 100 point winemaker from Saddleback Cellars, and Mike Grgich of Grgich Hills Estate. These two winemakers are responsible for some of the finest wines that we’ve had the pleasure to feature on these pages. Michael Roth, one of the most down to earth winemakers we’ve had the pleasure to work with, says of winemaking, “I always wanted to have a job where it was kind of a trade, like being a tradesman or a carpenter. Winemaking is like that. I’m really into the idea that you should be physically making the wine if you call yourself a winemaker.”

We really appreciate his hands-on approach, which really shines through in today’s truly exceptional Cabernet. This wine is dense, flavor-packed and super elegant. If there is any left over after we offer it to our Operatives, we here at HQ are definitely going to buying a few cases for ourselves!