2010 Casa Piena Cabernet Sauvignon Estate
Estimated value
Buying options
Tasting notes
I have liked Casa Piena’s wines in the past, but I thought the 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon is the finest wine I have yet tasted. There are 500 cases of this intense, full-bodied, powerful, concentrated Cabernet Sauvignon. It offers an opaque purple color, a sweet nose of licorice, scorched earth, blackberries and black currants followed by a full-bodied, powerful wine with the wood, alcohol, tannin and acidity well-integrated. Juicy and multidimensional with a layered mouthfeel, this impressive 2010 is already approachable and is capable of lasting 25 or more years. Both of these wines come from a vineyard in the Yountville AVA not far from the Kapcsandy estate. Casa Piena is owned by the exuberant Carmen Policy and his wife Gail. Policy is best known for his work in the San Francisco 49ers front office during the golden era in which the team won four Super Bowls. Success breeds success, as the saying goes. www.casapiena.com
Critic scores
Robert Parker
Stephen Tanzer, Vinous
More reviews and scores
(the first vintage for this winery, owned by Carmen Policy, ex-general manager of the San Francisco 49ers, was 2006; this 14-acre property in Yountville is not far from Kapcsandy Family Winery): Good medium ruby. Highly aromatic nose combines redcurrant, blueberry, brown spices, crushed rock, mocha, tobacco and smoky, nutty oak. Broad, suave and utterly seamless in the mouth; really spreads out to saturate the palate, with harmonious ripe acidity giving shape and lift to the intense fruit, spice and mineral flavors. Finishes with noble, very smooth tannins and lingering black fruit and crushed rock nuances. The 2009 vintage was excellent here, but this wine is at another level. Thomas Brown is responsible for the winemaking.
The 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon is a typical of the vintage. Black cherries, asphalt, mint, licorice and crushed rocks jump from the glass. The 2010 is endowed with serious depth, richness and power, yet remains elegant and light on its feet for such a dense wine. Chocolate, mocha and sweet spices add complexity on the finish. The 2010 is the product of an extremely long growing season that forced the vineyard team to drop a significant amount of fruit to ripen the crop. That choice turned out to be a great decision.
Deep, saturated ruby. Ripe, expressive aromas of black cherry, plum and chocolate. A step up in intensity and richness from the '09, showing a medicinal reserve to the flavors of dark fruits, menthol and chocolate. This big boy finishes with broad, dusty tannins and lingering mineral and chocolate elements. Thanks to more severe crop thinning than in 2009, this young 2010 appears to have more of everything than the earlier vintage.