2019 Crown Point Estate Selection

40% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Cabernet Franc, 10% Merlot, 5% Malbec, 5% Petit Verdot that spends 22 months in 50% new French oak. Very dark garnet. Scents of black cherry and vanilla. Juicy black-cherry and plum flavours are shot through with the sweet vanilla of oak. Excellent acidity and restrained tannins, but a little heat on the finish. (AY)

The 2019 Estate Selection is a blend of 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Cabernet Franc, and 5% each of Malbec, Petit Verdot and Merlot. It has a deep ruby color and pretty wafts of mint chocolate, thyme, violet, soy sauce and fennel with a core of ripe blackcurrants. The medium-bodied palate is velvety, expansive and seamless with energetic acidity and haunting herbal wafts on the finish. It's a very drinkable style that nonetheless has the potential to develop positively in bottle over the next decade.

The 2019 Estate Selection is more of a blend and is based on 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Cabernet Franc, and 5% each of Merlot, Petit Verdot, and Malbec, all aged in 50% new barrels. It’s a stunner, offering beautiful purity in its cassis, darker cherry, and blackberry-like fruits as well as notes of graphite and chalky minerality. Medium to full-bodied on the palate, it’s perfectly balanced, has great tannins, plenty of mid-palate depth, and outstanding length. Drink it over the coming 10-15 years. Readers looking for the best Bordeaux blends coming out of Santa Barbara County need to check on these releases from Crown Point Vineyards. Located in the warmer Happy Canyon region, with the wines made by Frenchman Simon Faury, these wines bring incredible richness and depth while still holding onto a sense of freshness and purity. You could easily put these in a blind lineup of the best from Napa, and they’ll more than hold their own.