Acumen 2022 Peak Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley ($110)

I believe most of Acumen's fruit is sourced from Napa's Atlas Peak sub-AVA, but I don't see that designation on this bottle. I am a fan of the winery, but I found this particular iteration a little hard to warm up to. At this stage, it's a prickly, tense Napa Cab with unusually high acid, mostly red fruit, and a lot of tannin. To be perfectly honest, I was not immediately charmed. Then I went back to it over the next couple of days. It rounded out, softened a bit, and showed some genuine class. This wine just needs time, and by that I mean about ten years. In my humble opinion, this is not a wine to drink anytime soon, but I think it will be lovely in time, and that's the proposition for my rating. (92 Points)

 

- Tim Teichgraeber 

Acumen 'Peak' 2023 Sauvignon Blanc Atlas Peak Napa Valley ($55)

 

 

As a life-long, devoted fan of sauvignon blanc, I feel like California is finally reaching it's full potential in producing wines from the variety. It has taken an evolution of appreciation of the nature of the grape variety as well as a steady maturation of the way it is treated in the winery. These days, California is producing both good value wines as well as top echelon ultra-premium versions of sauvignon blanc. This bottling from Acumen is one of the latter. It's enchantingly direct and primal, elegant and razor sharp, with grass, melon, clover, lemon and thyme aromas. Medium-bodied and mouth-filling, it sings with acidity through a very long finish. It doesn't get much better than this. This wine comes from the Attelas Vineyard planted at 1,300 ft. elevation by Jan Krupp in 1992 on volcanic gravelly loam soil. It spends 9 months in French oak barrels (presumably neutral, because it isn't overtly oaky at all. Only 117 cases produced.  

(96 Points)

- Tim Teichgraeber 

Acumen 'Peak' 2022 Edcora Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Atlas Peak, Napa Valley ($150)

The 2022 vintage in Napa Valley was a tricky one, with a heat wave in the middle of harvest. You would not know that from tasting this wine, because winemaker Phillip Titus handled those challenges with aplomb. The flavors are big and bold, definitively Napa Valley, and definitively Napa mountains, with deep cassis, black cherry and mulberry fruit, rock, smoke, graphite, madrone, and sage notes. It's the aromas that really give the wine freshness and make it stand out. There's lavender, thyme, blueberry, and more smoky tones that give the wine tremendous range. * I should note that wildfires were not a problem in Napa Valley in 2022. That smoky note that adds complexity is not obnoxious and it seems to be a pleasant, recurring note in this particular wine, so I think you can chalk that up to terroir and not natural disasters. (95 Points)

- Tim Teichgraeber 

 

Review: Acumen PEAK 2019 Sauvignon Blanc Atlas Peak, Napa Valley

This is a very dramatic, flashy Sauvignon with some barrel fermentation obvious in the nutty nose. It has intense melon, gooseberry and musky grapefruit aromas, and rich guava, lime, thyme, and pink grapefruit flavors with a long finish. Very impressive. (93 Points) - Tim Teichgraeber

The Two Best Wines I Had This Week

The first was kind of predictable. It was the MacRostie 2020 Sonoma Coast Chardonnay ($26), which has become one of my benchmark contemporary Chardonnays from California. I can't say enough about what Heidi Bridenhagen has done with this offering, or for that matter all of the other MacRostie offerings. There was a lot of smoke damage for later-harvested red grapes on the north coast of California, but the whites mostly came in unscathed, and they are brilliant. This wine is joyous, lemony, packed with epic citrus, tropical and stone fruit, and just can't be beat for the money. It is well worth searching out, as it has been for at least 7 or 8 vintages. Get some. (94 Points)

How much would you pay for a rose wine? Please tell me in the comments. The Acumen 2020 Mountainside Rose from Atlas Peak in Napa Valley ($30) breaks some of my fundamental rose rules, but I have to acknowledge that it is pretty epic and delicious. I don't really like paying more than $15 for a rose wine. I also generally prefer that they be more floral than fruity. This wine is double my usual price of admission and is definitely loaded with generous strawberry and watermelon fruit, but I can't deny that it's delicious. I poured a bit for my new housemate and he immediately volunteered that it was the best rose he's ever had. You know, if this is within your budget, I definitely would encourage you to try it. And it's 100% Merlot, by the way... (93 Points)

Review: Acumen 'Peak' Sauvignon Blanc Atlas Peak, Napa Valley ($75)

 

Acumen 2018 'Peak' Sauvignon Blanc

It's hard to overstate how much improvement there has been in the quality of Sauvignon Blanc in recent years, and this wine is a great example. Winemakers, in Napa valley in particular, used to throw so much new oak at this variety that the variety's personality was often crushed. These days more neutral barrels, stainless steel, and concrete vessels are the norm, and they really let the quality of the fruit shine through. This showstopping SB has vivid and lavish pineapple, green fig, pink grapefruit, and melon flavors with incredible length and amplitude. (96 Points)

- Tim Teichgraeber

 

Review: Acumen 2016 PEAK Edcora Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Atlas Peak, Napa Valley ($165)

 

This is a very complex, impressive Cab that has a ton of personality but isn't sweet and bloated. It actually has quite a bit of finesse, with fresh blackcurrant fruit, pretty madrone green notes, a hint of cocoa, and great minerality and nerve. Every aspect seems to linger harmoniously on the palate after you take a sip. It really could use a few years in the cellar, and should be killer when it turns 7 years old. The blend is 85% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6% Cabernet Franc, 5% Petit Verdot and 4% Malbec. Only 99 cases produced (95 Points)

Review: Acumen Napa Valley Mountainside Sauvignon Blanc ($40)

Acumen Napa Valley is an Atlas Peak estate with 116 acres of vines planted primarily to Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc. It is owned by Chinese-born entrepreneur Eric Yuan, who hired some outstanding consultants like Denis Malbec to help him get the project rolling. After Malbec died in a tragic auto accident, Danish-born Henrik Poulsen (Malbec's assistant winemaker) took over. The Sauvignon Blanc is made very much in the white Bordeaux model, broad and melony with stirred lees to give it great mouthfeel and a dose of oak aging that lends a spicy, toasty finish. It's an impressive wine with great concentration of flavor, and the oak is well integrated, so the wine isn't overly 'woody.' (92 Points)

Review: Duckhorn 2015 Atlas Peak Merlot ($75)

If you're a fan of Merlot, you're probably a fan of Duckhorn, a Napa brand that has been a tireless advocate of the variety. I really appreciate that Duckhorn has several Merlot offerings from different parts of Napa Valley, including Three Palms vineyard in Calistoga (in the northern part of the valley), another one from cooler Carneros at the southern end of the valley, and this hillside gem from Atlas Peak in the southeastern quadrant of Napa Valley. This one is less concentrated than Three Palms, and really reflects the cooler climate of the mountain with fresh violet and dried rose notes, juicy plum, raspberry and stony, tarry mineral notes imparted by the thin hillside soils. Only 485 cases produced. (94 points)