2005 Terra Valentine Wurtele Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Spring Mountain District, Napa Valley

For no reason at all, often the best reason, I decided to plunder my cellar on a solo night at home. A 13 year-old Napa Cabernet seemed like a really great idea, and I have long been a fan of Spring Mountain, Terra Valentine, longtime winemaker Sam Baxter, and the Wurtele Family (R.I.P. Angus Wurtele, a genuinely great guy,  who died in the fall of 2017).

I'm glad I picked out this wine tonight. It's beautiful, and a lovely interpretation of both Spring Mountain and Wurtele Vineyard.

What I have always loved about the Spring Mountain District is how a single vineyard can have so much complexity, because that part of the Mayacamas range has three geologic plates converging, and the soils are unusually complex, sometimes changing every few yards. What that can do, in these elevated, lean sites, is that it can give a wine all sorts of different nuances of texture and minerality within a relatively small single vineyard site. Then, when you also factor in all the environmental flavors contributed by the forest and scrub, you get some incredibly complex and varied wines, arguably the most complex and complete wines in all of Napa Valley.

Terra Valentine's Wurtele Vineyard has always made a wine that was almost Tuscan in its flavor profile in a way that's hard to describe. Here, this fully mature vintage of the wine just seems to reinforce that feeling. It smells of dried flowers, cinnamon, bay laurel and mint and it has a deep, dark, brooding core of black cherry, plum, and black olive flavors with a deep, saline minerality. Just reading those tasting notes, it might sound old, but that deep, dark red fruit core is perfectly in balance with all of the other dark, savory and mineral notes. In a lot of ways it tastes like an aged Tuscan Cabernet / Sangiovese blend just as much as it does like an aged Napa Cabernet. And it's kind of fascinating and curious in that way, because I don't think there are many other Spring Mountain District Cabernets that I would describe this way.

If you ever have an opportunity to visit Terra Valentine, don't pass it up. Usually all it takes is a quick call and advance reservation. The winery and buildings are profoundly infused with the spirit and sensibilities of the quirky engineer and inventor that founded the property and who built the winery with his own bare hands.

Happy 13th birthday. Here's lookin' at you, kid. (93 Points)