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  • Country ranking ?

    26
  • Producer ranking ?

    1
  • Decanting time

    3h
  • When to drink

    2023-2035
  • Food Pairing

    Grilled entrecote with haricort vert, Duck confit & Elk roast

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The 2016 Rive Droite Paradise Hills Vineyard, Blankiet's Merlot-based wine, is magnificent today. Merlot can be very quirky in its youth, especially when just bottled, but the Rive Droite is incredibly expressive, which provides a great opportunity to see its potential. Rich and boisterous in the glass, with tremendous textural resonance, the Rive Droite is gorgeous. Readers should plan on cellaring the 2016 for at least a handful of years. I don't see the 2016 ready to offer its best drinking any time soon."

98 points, Antonio Galloni (Vinous, Dec. 2018)

 

"The 2016 Rive Droite Paradise Hills Vineyard is blended of 95.5% Merlot and 4.5% Cabernet Sauvignon aged 19 months in French oak. It has a medium to deep garnet-purple color and gives up beautifully fragrant red rose, lilacs and damp soil notions with a core of warm plums, mulberries, spice cake and tobacco plus a waft of iron ore. Full, rich, opulent and oh-so-sexy, the palate exudes lovely warm black fruit and spice layers, finishing long and plushly textured. 308 cases produced."

97+ points, Lisa Perrotti-Brown (The Wine Advocate, Oct. 2018)

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The Story

Our true Bordeaux Right Bank wine. Merlot with a touch of Cabernet Franc. This wine is gorgeously fruit forward with a core of minerality.

Great wine comes from great grapes. We take extra care in preserving the flavors of the fruit during our winemaking process. Each pick is fermented separately  in small custom made stainless steel tanks.

The underground aging caves are vibration free, cooled to 54 degrees and 95% humidity with constant air movement. Some of the wine evaporates allowing a metered amount of oxygen to penetrate the oak barrels. This controlled breathing is essential for the chemical transformation occurring during barrel maturation when tannins, alcohols, acids and esters further interact to create more complex aromas and flavors. A couple of years later the wine is bottled on location without any filtration or fining.

Paradise Hills Vineyard is located on the western foothills of the Mayacamas Mountains above Yountville in the cooler part of the Napa Valley. Grapes planted in this area take longer to mature on the vine allowing for riper tannins, darker pigmentation and deeply perfumed fruit. The vineyards are east and southeast facing, ideal for maximizing photosynthesis with intense morning sun and natural protection from the hot afternoon rays.

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Wine Information

The 2016 ‘Rive Droite’ is made from predominately Merlot with a touch of Cabernet Franc and it is a total beauty that exudes striking class and refinement. It instantly begins to impress with its stunning aromatics of red and dark currants which are woven together with fresh spring florals, spices, licorice, herbs and tobacco to form the gorgeous perfumed nose. On the palate this is all about sheer elegance and structure, as the beautifully pure ripe dark fruits are wound tightly with beautifully polished tannins. It goes on to display incredible precision and balance with gorgeous underlying acidity adding a lovely sense of freshness as it leads up to the incredibly long finish. The 2016 will require some significant cellaring before it hits its stride, but that being said, it is one of the finest and most sophisticated Merlots being made in all of Napa, and it possesses all the characteristics to age gracefully for decades to come. 

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Tasting note

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Written Notes

Dark purple colour with violet hue and black core. Aromatic nose with balmy spices, vanilla, distinct eucalyptus, backed by ripe dark berries, berry jam and cherries. On the palate rich yet in a certain way elegant with ripe tannins, mild acidity and very convincing length. 

  • 95p

Moderately dark, ruby red colour. Intense, refined nose with vivid spicy aromas, dark berries, chocolate and toastiness. Full-bodied, vibrant acidity and velvety tannins. Energetic mouthfeel shows vivid red fruitiness and lovely dark chocolatey notes. The finish is lingering, spicy and long with touch of dark cacao in the end. Drinking perfectly already but will just get better in cellaring for at least 5-7 years. If enjoyed now, decant for 4 hours and serve at 18°C. Perfect match with grilled beef, roasted duck or hard cheeses. JL 95p (12/2020)    

  • 95p
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Information

Origin

Yountville, Napa Valley

Grapes

96% Merlot
4% Cabernet Sauvignon

Drinking temperature

17-18C

Inside Information

Blankiet's ' Bordeaux Right Bank wine. Merlot with a touch of Cabernet Franc. This wine is gorgeously fruit forward with a core of minerality.

Paradise Hills Vineyard is located on the western foothills of the Mayacamas Mountains above Yountville in the cooler part of the Napa Valley. Grapes planted in this area take longer to mature on the vine allowing for riper tannins, darker pigmentation and deeply perfumed fruit. The vineyards are east and southeast facing, ideal for maximizing photosynthesis with intense morning sun and natural protection from the hot afternoon rays.

Heat summation charts Paradise Hills Vineyard temperatures from 3000 to 3500 degree – day per season for the past 10 years. The climate is a bit warmer than Bordeaux but the summer days are sunny and dry with cool nights. Temperatures swing 50 degrees in a 24-hour period, allowing full phenolic ripening of the grapes while maintaining a fresh acidity. Paradise Hills is cooled by constant breezes flowing from the cold waters of the San Pablo Bay. The grape berries tend to develop a thicker skin that protects them from dehydration.

Paradise Hills displays an almost textbook assortment of different soil conditions that comprise ancient Pacific seabed formations of greenstone, sandstone, limestone, shale, white volcanic tuffs and pyroclastic lava flows.

Cabernet Sauvignon is planted on the porous volcanic soils that produce wines with concentrated tannins and complex flavours. Cabernet Franc is planted on an east facing slope of clay loam over fractured rocks at the top of the canyon. Natural protection from the hot afternoon sun allows the maturation of the grapes to be extended ten days later than valley floor or west facing vineyards. Planted on the steepest East facing slopes at the end of the canyon, our Petit Verdot grapes are the last to be harvested from the Paradise Hills vineyard. Merlot is planted on a deep band of brown alluvial clay eroded from the mountain range. The steep slopes are facing North – North East and wrap around the South side of the canyon.

Paradise Hills Vineyard is farmed organically and great care is given to maintain soil balance. Nutrients taken from the land during the growing season are replaced using green manure. A mix of winter grasses and legumes such as clover, winter rye, sorghum and sweet peas, are seeded between rows. When Spring comes, the grasses are mowed down and spaded back into the soil.

Grape vines regenerate from seeds and/or from vegetative offshoots of the canes. Seed reproduction is a long and complicated pathway, therefore growers use cuttings to create new vines.  If vines are permitted to expand their energy on vegetative growth they will do so at the expense of ripening fruit.

Coaxing grapevines and their relentless propensity on growing canes and leaves instead of fruit requires an enormous amount of labor. That is why vineyards planted in nutrition-depleted and well-drained hillsides are naturally better suited in producing small crops of intensely flavoured berries.

To further enhance wine concentration and complexity, the number of clusters a vine is allowed to ripen is restricted.  During the growing season buds, flowers, leaves and clusters are carefully thinned out, allowing each vine to produce a metered amount of fruit in accordance to its age, terroir and specific weather conditions of the year.

 

Water needs are carefully monitored by checking the amount of moisture in the leaves to prevent the vines from shutting down. Diminishing sunlight by mid-summer tells the vines the end of the season is in sight and all their energy is to be spent in ripening the berries.

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