Sloan Proprietary Red Rutherford 2016

Sloan Estate was founded in 1997 when Stuart Sloan purchased 40 acres of land in the eastern hills of the Rutherford AVA, which gave him a nice view of Auberge du Soleil sitting just below his property. Sloan quickly put together an all-star team to help accomplish his goal of making one of the greatest Cabernet Sauvignons in all of Napa Valley. He hired famed Vineyard Manager, David Abreu to plant 13 acres of the property with Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Petit Verdot vines on the mineral-rich, porous soil of fractured volcanic rock and sandy loam. The perfect blend of white tufa soil, a cool marine influence, and generous sun exposure forms the ideal site for growing fruit of a distinct quality and crafting exceptional wines that are compelling expressions of these elements. He basically had just planted on a goldmine. Mark Aubert was hired as winemaker for Sloan and made the first vintage in 2000 and up until Martha McClellan (Harlan, Levy & McClellan, Checkerboard among the wines on her resume) took over winemaking in 2004. When the initial 2000 vintage was released in 2004, it was clear Sloan Estate's luscious, dense and complex Bordeaux Blends were not to be taken lightly. Along with world-renowned consulting oenologist Michel Rolland, this A-list team has been responsible for handcrafting these epically exquisite and celebrated wines ever since. With a limited annual production of 600 cases, 100-point scores by critics many times over, and a super-exclusive mailing list reserved for the most elite and long-standing collectors, procuring Sloan Estate wines is next to impossible. But not today, not here... The estate's flagship wine since its inaugural 2000 vintage, the SLOAN Proprietary Red is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Petit Verdot. It has a unique character that stems from their estate's Sacrashe Vineyard high above the Rutherford valley floor. Layered with remarkable complexity and intensity of flavors and aromas, Sloan exhibits a gorgeous tension between elements of grace and power, balance and opulence, as well as age and vibrancy. It is a precise wine with defined structure and immense aging potential and at the same time, a seductive wine of exceptional fruit finesse, minerality, and with a multi-layered mouthfeel. Crafted with meticulous care from vine to bottle and exacting standards for achieving the highest quality, this uninhibitedly rich and extraordinarily pure wine is a beautiful, raw expression of the estate's terroir. "This is a barrel sample blended of 66% Cabernet Sauvignon, 23% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Franc and 3% Petit Verdot, to be bottled the first week of February 2019. Deep garnet-purple colored, the 2016 Proprietary Red opens with fragrant notions of candied violets, chocolate box and baking spices with a core of blackcurrant cordial, preserved plums and blackberry compote with touches of garrigue and menthol. Full-bodied, rich and packed with black fruits sparked by tons of cinnamon and cloves accents, it has a firm, velvety-textured frame and great freshness, finishing with epic persistence." ~Lisa Perotti-Brown/The Wine Advocate, 100 Points.