Scott Palazzo is not your ordinary Napa vintner. His boundless enthusiasm for his wines and the Napa Valley in general are not uncommon among winery owners, but his demeanor seems perhaps a bit more ‘Hollywood’ than ‘wine country’.
But, while the guy can definitely ‘talk the talk’, he also walks the walk. His numbers speak for themselves. Take for example his Wine Advocate reviews. For 25 wines over the course of a decade (2003-2013), Palazzo never received a score below 91 and there were a number of ‘95s’, ‘96s’, and even some ‘98s’ sprinkled in the mix.
We have worked with Scott a few times over the years because his wines are quite good. But being wine merchant types as we are, the ‘relationship’ has always been subject to price concerns. While we appreciate the best of breed from Napa as much as the next guys, we are a little conservative when it comes to offering that $80-and-up category for sale. It is a common problem for us with ‘the Valley’ these days.
We could go off (and have) on the present state of affairs in Napa Valley as it seems most wineries are only willing to do as much as they need to do to promote their own ‘direct to consumer’ sales. But what is relevant in this case is that we are starting to see a few Napa-ites starting to take stock of serving a broader market with a wine or two that isn’t just some unembellished effort that just bears the winery’s name.
Not long ago we profiled a new effort from Conn Valley that really delivered quality for a much more modest fare than their usual ‘reserve level’ offerings. Most important, the wine showcased the style of the house and gave the luxury feel of the winery’s top cuvees for substantially less of an outlay. So many wineries are putting out uninspired bottlings for the ‘little people’ that are little more than token offerings. They rarely reflect the house style. The Conn Valley is a notable diversion from that format.
So is this new effort from Palazzo (the second of the series we are told). Unlike a lot of ‘value’ (by Napa standards) wines, this tastes and stylistically presents a legitimate Palazzo experience. The style of all of Palazzo’s wines have the plush elegance and balance of Bordeaux as their reference point. It is Napa with an eye to Saint Julien. The Palazzo Left Bank Red Cuvée Master Blend Series 2016, while the name is too long, represents more the rich Napa texture and presence with a Bordeaux elegance rather than, say, the pedal-to-the-medal trophy style typical of most vintners here.
The ‘Left Bank’ is a blend of 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 25% each Cabernet Franc and Merlot. It sees 20 months in oak, 50% new. The result is a pleasing, layered effort with lush black-cherry and blackberry fruit on the nose and palate, along with hints of chocolate, coffee and cassis. Because some of the components come from top Carneros sites, there’s a cool, fresh underpinning of ‘savory’ to play against the lusher, sweeter Cabernet core. It’s about complex aromatics and harmony and it performs like wines costing a lot more while accurately conveying the style of the house, which is exactly the point!