2018 Corison, Sunbasket Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, California, USA
Critics reviews
Full bottle 1,413 g.
Lustrous but not that dense crimson. Really very complex and saline. Sage-brush springs to mind as a descriptor though I'm really none too sure what it is! Dried vegetation anyway rather than anything sweet. So very refreshing and savoury! The opposite of a fruit bomb. Such care seems to have been lavished on this trend-bucking wine that leaves the palate cleansed. Yes please!
Drink now to 2031
Jancis Robinson, JancisRobinson.com (October 2021)
Corison's 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Sunbasket Vineyard is marked by scents of pencil shavings and cassis on the nose. Just a bit bigger and richer than the Kronos while still refreshingly moderate in alcohol (13.7%), this is more velvet than silk, with a deeper pile to the plush feel on the palate, but perhaps there's a bit less perfume and complexity. It's still a terrific Cab, elegant and finesse-filled, rather than overpowering.
Drink now to 2035
Joe Czerwinski, Wine Advocate (May 2022)
Lovely purity of fruit to this with plum, chocolate and walnut character. Full-bodied with a soft, juicy palate of enticing fruit and layers of round tannins that nicely frame the wine. Juicy finish. Drinkable now, but needs two or three years to come together. Try after 2022.
James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com (January 2021)
About this WINE
Corison Winery
Napa Valley
North Coast's Napa Valley is California's most famous viticultural area (AVA), claiming some of the most expensive agricultural land in the world and producing wines of ‘cult’ status.
Its 16,000 ha of vines lie over a strip (40 miles long-5 miles wide) of diverse soils (clay, gravely, volcanic), with its northernmost end on the side of Mountain Helena and its foot in San Francisco Bay. The valley is framed by two mountains ranges Vaca (to the north) and Mayacamas (to the south), yet the main climatic influence is the cool wind and fog that is sucked in from San Pablo Bay during the afternoon, allowing grapes to ripen slowly and evenly.
The area enjoys a variety of unique microclimates, as temperatures can vary dramatically as much as 15 degrees, from the north to the south end of the valley. These differences have led to the creation of several sub-AVAs (14 in total) including:
Atlas Peak, Chiles Valley District, Diamond Mountain District, Howell Mountain, Los Carneros, Mt. Veeder, Oakville, Rutherford, St. Helena, Spring Mountain District, Stags Leap District, Yountville, Wild Horse Valley and Oak Knoll District. The Calistoga AVA is still pending approval.
Both the “Napa Valley” designation and the sub-AVA name must appear on the wine label simultaneously, with the exception of wines from the Carneros AVA, which is shared between the Napa Valley and the Sonoma County.
Cabernet Sauvignon is the undisputed king of Napa grapes, occupying over 45% of the vineyard acreage, followed by (predominantly) Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc, Riesling, Zinfandel, Merlot, Cab. Franc and to a lesser extent Petite Sirah, Sangiovese, Barbera, Dolcetto.
Recommended Producers
Frog's Leap, Dominus, David Ramey, Viader, Stag's Leap Cellars, Paras Vineyards, Heitz.
Cabernet Sauvignon
The most famous red wine grape in the world and one of the most widely planted.
It is adaptable to a wide range of soils, although it performs particularly well on well-drained, low-fertile soils. It has small, dusty, black-blue berries with thick skins that produce deeply coloured, full-bodied wines with notable tannins. Its spiritual home is the Médoc and Graves regions of Bordeaux where it thrives on the well-drained gravel-rich soils producing tannic wines with piercing blackcurrant fruits that develop complex cedarwood and cigar box nuances when fully mature.
The grape is widely planted in California where Cabernet Sauvignon based wines are distinguished by their rich mixture of cassis, mint, eucalyptus and vanilla oak. It is planted across Australia and with particular success in Coonawarra where it is suited to the famed Terra Rossa soil. In Italy barrique aged Cabernet Sauvignon is a key component in Super Tuscans such as Tignanello and Sassicaia, either on its own or as part of a blend with Sangiovese.
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Description
Lustrous but not that dense crimson. Really very complex and saline. Sage-brush springs to mind as a descriptor though I'm really none too sure what it is! Dried vegetation anyway rather than anything sweet. So very refreshing and savoury! The opposite of a fruit bomb. Such care seems to have been lavished on this trend-bucking wine that leaves the palate cleansed. Yes please!
Drink now to 2031
Jancis Robinson, JancisRobinson.com (October 2021)
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