Patria Avoyelles Red Blend Oakville Ranch Napa Valley 2021

There is no denying that all of us here at ACME are big fans of the wines made by Tony Biagi. We have featured most of his handcrafted projects in our Kahuna Club , including Hourglass , Amici , Sinegal , and the wines he makes under his label, Patria . We are honored and excited to share the newest release of one of his wines, one that we have only received a couple of cases of this year ~ Patria Avoyelles , his "Right Bank Blend" coming from the famed Oakville Ranch Vineyard . Tony Biagi is a sixth-generation Californian whose first memories of wine trace back to his father making small amounts of wine in the family's garage. Tony later enrolled at U.C. Davis to study marine biology, but in turn, ended up graduating with a degree in oenology. He then bolstered his winemaking experience at Duckhorn Vineyards under the tutelage of Tom Rinaldi and served as the head winemaker for the Paraduxx label before assuming winemaking duties for Neal Family Vineyard and eventually landing at PlumpJack Group. Biagi's tenure with the company included roles as winemaker for the company's PlumpJack Estate and spearheading the wine program at CADE on Howell Mountain. In 2013 he launched his personal label Patria (homeland), with the globe-trotting Kimberly Jones as a partner while still making Hourglass, Amici, and The Vineyardist. The fruit Tony sources to handcraft Patria's Avoyelles, his homage to the right bank blends from Bordeaux, comes from the beautiful Oakville Ranch Vineyard, a hillside estate sitting at 1,300 feet in elevation on the eastern edge of the Oakville Appellation, where the land is composed of distinct iron-rich, volcanic and red clay soils. Neighbors sharing this treasured terroir include Screaming Eagle , Dalla Valle , Joseph Phelps Backus Vineyard , Rudd , and Bond's St. Eden Vineyard . 

"Including more Cabernet Sauvignon than Cabernet Franc (it swings back and forth), the 2021 Avoyelles Oakville reveals a dense purple hue as well as sensational aromatics of red, blue, and blue fruits, spring flowers, spicy oak, graphite, dark chocolate, and a beautiful earth, forest floor-like character. Full-bodied, concentrated, and ultra-pure, it's borderline perfection and a heavenly bottle of wine that needs 3-5 years of bottle age and will blow you away over the following two decades. The blend is 55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 44% Cabernet Franc, and 2% Petit Verdot, aged 22 months all in new French oak." - 99 points, Jeb Dunnuck