La saison 2018 s’est déroulée à un rythme tranquille pour les viticulteurs du cépage Napa. Le débourrement a commencé fin février ; le printemps a été doux et la période de floraison prolongée a permis la formation de grappes homogènes. Les températures sont restées chaudes et stables tout au long de la saison, et les vendanges ont débuté entre 10 jours et trois semaines plus tard qu’en 2017. Les viticulteurs de la variété Some Napa ont poursuivi les vendanges jusqu’à la fin octobre. Les rendements de cette variété californienne ont été élevés, supérieurs à la moyenne historique, et les fruits ont mûri de manière uniforme sans précipitation.
Cette maturation lente se reflète dans le vin versé dans le verre, qui révèle des arômes de fruits pleinement mûrs sans être trop mûrs.
Robert Parker (91)
The 2018 Reserve Tapestry Proprietary Red Wine is blended of 78% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Merlot, 8% Petit Verdot, 5% Malbec and 1% Cabernet Franc. Deep garnet-purple in color, it bursts with open-knit notes of black cherry preserves, warm cassis and redcurrants, plus hints of forest floor, clove oil and Ceylon tea, with a waft of wild sage. The full-bodied palate has a soft texture of ripe, fine-grained tannins and lovely freshness, finishing savory.
James Suckling (94)
This is layered, with chewy tannins and attractive blackcurrant and blackberry character. Chocolate and walnut highlights. Full and flavorful, but not heavy in any sense of the word. Cabernet sauvignon, merlot, petit verdot and cabernet franc. Better in a year or two.
Jancis Robinson (17)
2018 was a 'near-perfect vintage'. Winemaker Trevor Durling said, 'Mother Nature threw nothing at me to force me to harvest earlier. We even reached phenolic ripeness before the sugars were high enough to pick.' 78% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Merlot, 8% Petit Verdot, 5% Malbec, 1% Cabernet Franc. This is 95% their own fruit, we're told. Fruit sourced from Rutherford, Calistoga, Oakville, Coombsville, Carneros and Howell Mountain. Each variety is vinified separately. Optical sorting, cold soaking, gentle pumpovers and fermented in stainless steel. Malo in French oak barrels, 60% new, where the wine spends 22 months. TA 6.4 g/l, pH 3.78.
Sleek with a fragrant note of fresh laurel leaf whispering cool somethings above the audaciously ripe, red fruit. It's voluptuous, but not without intricacy – mint, blueberry and jasmine entwine a long, soapstone-smooth graphite spine, and the acidity has lustrous intensity, crimson ripeness. It almost feels as if it's dripping down your chin. What it lacks in subtlety, it makes up in sheer sumptuousness. Tamlyn Currin
Jeb Dunnuck (90)
The 2018 Red Blend Tapestry is a perennial good value and has up-front darker currant and plum fruits as well as notes of tobacco, chocolate, and spicy oak. Medium-bodied, firm, and focused on the palate, it shows the style of the vintage nicely and should keep for upwards of a decade.
