2004 Viader Proprietary Red

40% Cabernet Franc, 60% Cabernet Sauvignon. Sweeter nose than the Benziger. Molten with a strong lava flow undertow – from the Cab Franc? Quite firm and austere but classic. Quite distinctive for a Napa Valley red – much more ‘minerality’. (JR)

(a 60/40 blend of cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc) Good deep red-ruby. Blackberry, violet and licorice aromas, complicated by leather and graphite. Wonderfully sweet, silky and suave, with an inner-mouth aromatic quality rare for the year. This very well-balanced blend is juicy, even a bit youthfully tight, and finishes with impressive perfume. Has the mid-palate sweetness to balance its firm tannic spine and offers a lovely combination of density and elegance. In comparison to this vintage, the 2003 release is more of an "upfront" wine, notes Viader, who pointed out that her flagship wine's cabernet franc element is more important to its aging potential than the sauvignon.

(a 60/40 blend of cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc) Good deep ruby-red. Understated but precise aromas of dark berries, graphite and sweet oak. Then sweet, lush and soft, with a texture of liquid silk. Flavors of black and red cherry complicated by licorice. Finishes with very fine, suave tannins and lovely length. A distinctly feminine style of wine. Proprietor Delia Viader describes the 2004 vintage as elegant and supple, even soft, while 2003, she says, has more punch, and shows more obvious tannins and alcohol.