Caldwell Vineyard Proprietary Red 2011 (Coombsville, Napa Valley, California) - [VM 90+]

A head-spinning tapestry of six different clone-specific grape varieties from our own estate makes this year’s Silver another kind of delicious. Not just a sensationally complex vixen of a wine, this brooding beauty offers ridiculously heady aromatics. Deep, dark fruits are highlighted by a hint of cola and camphor that offer a plethora of playfulness and a counterweight to the intensity of fruit and structure. Silver was the first wine ever crafted at Caldwell. John called upon Philippe Melka (the original Frenchman and rising star winemaker at the time) to satiate his yearning for a single wine that represented the absolute best blend from the entire vineyard – and all 28 clone-specific varieties that grow here – in a particular year. Trial and error over a few decades have taught us a thing or two, and the hard-won results of that work have come shining through in this vintage. A hot, ripe year gave us the chance to play with less Syrah and more Cabernet Franc, lending flavors that