2014 Michel Rolland Red Wine

The 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon from Bordeaux’s premier consultant is a serious, voluptuous, yet pure and even elegant Cabernet that makes the most of this terrific vintage. Made at the Alpha Omega winery, this purple/blue colored beauty offers sensational purity in its crème de cassis, graphite, scorched earth and licorice aromas and flavors. Big, rich, full-bodied and opulent, it nevertheless has terrific mid-palate depth, fine, sweet tannin and a finish that won’t quit. It’s sensational today, yet will keep for 2-3 decades. It’s obvious famed Bordeaux consultant Michel Rolland doesn’t have any issues sourcing terrific fruit as both his 2014 and 2015 are beautiful, classic Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignons.

His 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon-based wine is a prodigious effort and maybe the best he’s made to date, even though one would expect that, like most wineries, the 2013 or 2015 would be the pinnacle of great Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot. This beauty (14.9% alcohol) has an opaque purple color and a beautiful, sweet nose of blueberry liqueur intermixed with some blackberries, crème de cassis, licorice and graphite. It is full-bodied, has a velvety texture and fine tannins, a terrific length of close to 50 seconds, and a large-scaled, voluptuous mouthfeel that just goes on and on. Purity, richness and overall equilibrium are top-flight. Drink it now or drink it in 20-30 years, as it is that well-balanced and potentially long-lived.