2016 Onda Cabernet Sauvignon
Buying options
Tasting notes
I reviewed the 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Onda earlier this year, but I was certainly happy to taste this beauty again. A blend of all of the estate vineyards and based on 95% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Merlot, and the rest Petit Verdot, it's a pretty, elegant wine offering medium to full-bodied notes of ripe blackcurrants, mulberries, chocolate, incense, and smoke tobacco. It shows the more elegant, understated style of the 2016 vintage, is medium to full-bodied, and has rock star tannins along with a great finish. As I wrote last year, it's beautifully done and is going to evolve for 20-25 years in cold cellars.
Critic scores
Average Score
Antonio Galloni, Vinous
James Suckling
More reviews and scores
This is a blend of all four of the estate vineyards and includes a vineyard planted in 1967, just below the Lotus vineyard. Blended of 95% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Merlot and 1% Petit Verdot, the 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Onda fermented 60% in concrete tanks, 30% in oak tanks, 7% in barrels and 3% in stainless steel. It spent 21 to 34 days on the skins and aged for 20 months in French oak barrels. Deep garnet-purple in color, it struts out of the glass with flamboyant baked cherries, warm blackcurrants, spice cake and potpourri with hints of menthol, chocolate box and a waft of forest floor. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is vibrant, juicy and open for business with a plush frame and lively lift to the finish.
This is a very tight Onda, showing beautiful balance and brightness with blackberries and blueberries and chocolate undertones. Full body and rich, polished tannins. Balance and harmony here. Hard not to drink now.
The 2016 Onda is a very serious wine. Dark, mysterious and brooding, the 2016 is an especially dark, potent wine. Black cherry, blueberry jam, crème de cassis, bittersweet chocolate, licorice, menthol and spice start to open up in the glass, but the 2016 remains dense, primary and in need of at least a few years in bottle – maybe more – to be at its best.
About the producer
Located on the Rutherford bench, Dana Estates is a small Napa estate focused on producing fine, single-site Cabernet Sauvignon. The concentrated wines are some of the region’s most sought-after, regularly earning top ratings from critics – with 19 100-point scores to date.