This is a curious example of the ‘new math’, and certainly an anomaly in today’s Napa. In world where legitimate $40-50 Cabernets are asking $150, this guy is offering a wine sourced from an iconic list of Napa vineyards, made by one of Napa’s ‘rock star’ winemakers, for less than $100. This isn’t our first go-around with Purlieu Cabernets. We’ve sold a couple of prior vintages just because we thought they were seriously good and offered value in a rarefied world of elite Napa Cabernets that seems to be philosophically averse to it.
The list of vineyards in the Purlieu Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 2014 is sick…Missouri Hopper, Beckstoffer To-Kalon, the Pritchard Hill vineyard next to Ovid (Martinez) and Teucer. These make $150-300+ single vineyard wines for Purlieu and others. Put them together and it’s…less? The fruit in this wine is gorgeous…black cherry, plum, and blackcurrant with flecks of vanilla, toast, and dark chocolate (around 82% cocoa if you want specifics, chocolate geeks). In line with the 2014 vintage, the wine is pretty seamless front-to-back, and the texture of plush and palate caressing.
The winemaker here is one Julien Fayard, one of Napa’s rising superstars with a resume that sounds like some one made it up. He has worked as the director of winemaking for Phillipe Melka’s all-star team that took care of wineries like Hundred Acre, Vineyard 29, Lail, and Gemstone.
Robert Parker’s notes are pretty enthusiastic about the wine, “The real knock-out is the 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa… this is a superb example of Napa Cabernet Sauvignon. Inky purple in color, with beautiful blackberry and cassis fruit, a touch of creosote, charcoal and some subtle background oak, the wine hits the palate with authority, serious extract and richness, but enough acidity to frame up its boisterous and exuberant parts. It is a big, rich, concentrated, mouth-filling Cabernet Sauvignon with relatively sweet tannin. It should drink well for 15-20 years, possibly longer…94 points”
We would’t be at all surprised if this sexy, layered Cabernet could kick some serious tail in a scrum of high-digit Napa stalwarts, yet at this price it’s actually a deal based on performance in our minds. Robert Parker went out of his way to say the wine ‘wasn’t a bargain’ at under $100. Since ‘print’ has no nuance, we aren’t sure about the context of that comment, but we politely (though firmly) disagree. We aren’t the type of folks that tell people to spend this kind of money lightly and are very measured in our praise. This one delivers. It’s is also as crowd pleasing a high end Cabernet as we have had in a while. It will only get better. Not everyone can play at this level price-wise. But if you can, this is a star.