Spring Mountain Vineyard, Elivette, Napa Valley, Spring Mountain 2009

With very little rainfall in 2009, coming into the third year of a drought cycle, yields for their Elivette Cabernet were down almost 130 tons, as compared to normal yields. The result, produced by Jac Cole, offers fabulously fresh and enticing aromas of dried violets, herbs, and black currants. A seamless wine in the prime of its life, just shedding its oak fat and softening with superb fine-grained tannins. A truly extraordinary reserve bottling, with immense depth and complexity in the form of a pretty pine forest, liquorice, and tobacco notes through a lengthy resolve.