2013 Hayfork Cabernet Sauvignon Lewelling Ranch
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Starting with the two 2013s, which is winemaker Haley Wight’s favorite vintage, the 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon Lewelling Ranch spent 20 months in 70% new French oak. This ripe, opulent, incredibly sexy wine offers notes of currants, cassis, black cherries, licorice, hints of scorched earth. Ripe and opulent on the palate, with notable tannin and beautiful purity of fruit, give it a few years and it should shine for 15+. These terrific releases come from the husband and wife-winemaker and farming team of Haley Wight and Erik Dodd. Haley was raised on the Lewelling Ranch in Yountville and has been making Cabernet Sauvignon since 2006, and she’s certainly a winemaker to watch going forward. I’ve listed the wines in the order I tasted through them with Haley.
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Robert Parker
Jeb Dunnuck
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The 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon Lewelling Ranch is bright, focused and nuanced, with striking aromatics and quite a bit of complexity. Understated and classy, with attractive freshness and tons of finesse, the Lewelling Ranch shows the more polished style of the year. Even so, there is plenty of underlying tannic grip.
The exciting 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon from the respected Lewelling Ranch in St. Helena is a blend of 96% Cabernet Sauvignon and 4% Petit Verdot. Aged 20 months in 70% new French oak, this has a relatively realistic price point for Napa. There are 700 cases of this opaque purple wine, which exhibits classic Pauillac notes of Christmas fruitcake, allspice, cedar wood, black and red currants as well as hints of underbrush and earth. It is medium to full-bodied, deliciously fruity and pure, with light to moderate tannin in the finish. Drink it over the next 15+ years.