We taste a lot of Cabernets always with the intent of finding the best and the brightest as well as striking values when the opportunity presents itself. It is rare for us to get ‘wowed’. But in the case of The Setting Cabernet Sauvignon Alexander Valley 2019, we were impressed in a way that rarely happens around here.
We’ll give you the winery spiel first, “Known for his ability to extract the deepest expression of each vineyard into his wines, Jesse uses extended barrel time in new and neutral oak, as well as minimal intervention to produce unfined, unfiltered wines that delicately balance purity of fruit with the distinct characters of each site.”
While that sounds like a pretty lofty profile for winemaker/partner Jesse Katz, son of famous photographer Andy Katz, in our experience nothing is overstated. Having spent time a Petrus, Screaming Eagle, Robert Foley, and Vina Cobos, he had the opportunity to work with top of the heap talent and clearly learned his craft well. He was the founding winemaker at Lancaster, and has been getting accolades for his current work at Aperture, and this project is his own. The expectations were high and they have been met if not exceeded.
The 2018 version of this wine were pretty spectacular and collected a number of impressive scores including a 97 from Wine Advocate. There have been no reviews we have seen on this wine yet, but we suspect it will get its due. What is interesting here is that the review on the 2018 from Jeb Dunnuck is pretty much interchangeable with our impressions of The Setting Cabernet Sauvignon Alexander Valley 2019:
“The 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Alexander Valley is stunning stuff, offering up a dense purple color as well as both black and blue fruits, notes of lead pencil, crushed stone, graphite, and tobacco, full-bodied richness, ripe, velvety tannins, and a great finish. This powerful, sexy, seamless Cabernet will keep for two decades or more. “
Like the winery press release says, this wine really does deeply express the dark red fruits and spice, layered with chocolate and coffee tones, that is the Alexander Valley at its best. The depth of fruit, power, poise and balance are at a level that few producers achieve at any price. It is one of the most impressive Cabs we have tasted in a very long time and actually represents a value at a price under $100. As you know, we don’t spend a lot of time trying to sell California wines in this kind of price range. But this one is well worth the experience.