Notre Vin Cabernet Sauvignon Cuvée l’Etrier 2006

This is a cuvée of approximately 85 percent Cabernet Sauvignon and the rest Merlot and just a few percent Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc. Grapes are sourced from the La Herradura Vineyard in Conn Valley (just opposite of Anderson Conn Valley) at the foot of Howell Mountain. After three weeks of fermentation and maceration, the wine spent 18 months in new French oak and it was bottled without being fined or filtered. It’s still dark with a youthful purple color, a young and very intense nose driven by primaty fruit aromas, but in a very elegant way that although typical for its origin also offers a French touch. On the palate, the fruit is much sweeter with loads of cassis and blackberries, but there’s a very good acidity and fine still young tannins to hold the sweet flavors back. There’s a fine but not marked mineral structure to make the wine serious, and even though I find the taste very pleasant, it doesn’t have the vibrant enegery I look for, at least at the moment. It lacks a bit of middle palate and the slightly greenish oak bitterness in the aftertaste needs to integrate a bit more. However, I don’t worry too much – time will make justice to that. Drinking it today or within a few years from now, I’d serve it to braised meet, steaks or venison and using a creamy texture in the dish, both oak and tannins will be balanced in a perfect way.

- Michel Jamais