2010 Levy & McClellan Red
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Tasting notes
The 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon rivals the best Levy & McClellan offerings they have made to date. Its opaque blue/purple color is followed by gorgeous aromas of graphite, wet rocks, blackberry and blueberry liqueur, a distinctive floral note, background oak and hints of white chocolate and charcoal embers. Full-bodied with spectacular concentration, this layered wine reveals a vibrant structure and freshness despite its enormous size and richness. While slightly more evolved than the 2009, it is a much bigger, richer wine that will require 3-5 years of cellaring. This classic Napa Cabernet should age effortlessly for three decades or more. This is the personal project of Napa Valley’s famous wine consultants Bob Levy (long the “main man” at Harlan Estate and Bond) and his wife, Martha McClellan (who has provided expertise to a number of brilliant start-up wineries). They produce this cuvee from the hillsides of northern Napa Valley. Tel. (707) 963-1282
Critic scores
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Robert Parker
Robert Parker
More reviews and scores
The 2010 Red Wine is just as beautiful as it was last year. Mocha, plum, smoke, tobacco and licorice all flesh out in a huge, powerful wine endowed with serious richness and depth. Today, the 2010 is firing on all cylinders. The combination of nuance, power and intensity is terrific. Hints of iron, smoke, graphite and pencil shavings add complexity on the powerful, incisive finish. I hope to be able to taste the 2010 when it is mature, as there is a lot to look forward to.
(basically 85% cabernet sauvignon and 15% cabernet franc, with a bit of co-fermented merlot): Good deep medium ruby. Superb lift to the aromas of cassis, blackberry, bitter chocolate and licorice, complicated by sexy soil tones and a hint of olive oil. Denser and sweeter than the young 2011, offering pure, complex flavors of dark berries, flowers, minerals and forest floor. Just a hint of herbs on the finish, along with some edgy tannins that call for five or six years of cellaring. Bob Levy noted that these vines, planted in 1999, are just starting to come into their own.
The 2010 Red Wine is even more impressive today than it was last year. A full-bodied, intense wine, the 2010 bursts from the glass with seemingly endless layers of fruit. Plums, camphor, violets, cloves and cassis are some of the nuances that take shape in the glass, but the 2010 is mostly a wine built on structure and overall textural polish. Veins of precise, cool minerality give the 2010 its breadth and sense of energy. Simply put, all the elements are in the right place. I can't wait to taste the 2010 from bottle, but there should be plenty of time, as the 2010 is an infant. The 2010 is the result of a cold, late harvest and a year with fewer hot days than 2009.