2017 Daou Reserve Seventeen Forty
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Tasting notes
Deep, shimmering ruby. Ripe, smoke-tinged cherry and dark berries on the fragrant nose, which is complicated by slowly emerging exotic spice and pipe tobacco nuances. Stains the palate with juicy cherry and blackcurrant flavors that show superb clarity and pick up hints of mint, mocha and vanilla on the back half. Finishes smooth, broad and extremely long, delivering solid dark fruit thrust, steadily building tannins and a late touch of bitter chocolate. (aged for 20 months in new French oak barrels)
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Jeb Dunnuck
Josh Raynolds
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The 2017 Seventeen Forty Reserve is a blend of 65% Cabernet Franc and 35% Merlot aged 20 months in 100% new French oak. Deep ruby-purple colored, it opens with touches of blackcurrant leaf and dried thyme over a core of wild blackberries, cassis, graphite, grilled meats and turned earth with wafts of cigar ash and violet. Medium to full-bodied, it offers restrained, ripe fruits and herbal nuances with a classic, gently chewy texture and great freshness, finishing long.
The Cabernet Franc-dominated 2017 1740 Reserve (there’s 35% Merlot) offers a stunning bouquet of blue fruits, violets, forest floor, and earth. This carries to a medium to full-bodied, rounded, seamless expression of Cabernet Franc that has light tannins, terrific balance, and a great finish.