Continuum, Napa Valley 2018

This has incredible nuances and delicacy with power. It’s full-bodied with lots of gentle tannins that spread across the palate. The character is full of blackberry, blackcurrant and lead pencil. Some conifer and pine needles. Sage at the end, too. Savory. So long-lasting and layered. Such purity. It’s so complex and changes all the time in the glass. Goes on for minutes. 54% cabernet sauvignon, 31% cabernet franc, 9% petit verdot and 6% merlot. Organically grown grapes. So drinkable now, but will age beautifully.

A blend of 54% Cabernet Sauvignon, 31% Cabernet Franc, 9% Petit Verdot, and 6% Merlot, with all the fruit estate grown from Sage Mountain Vineyard on Pritchard Hill, the 2018 Continuum has a deep garnet-purple color. It needs a lot of swirling before bright red fruit, floral notes, tea, and cassis come through, plus wild sage and crushed rocks. Full-bodied and firm, the palate has amazing tension, with fine-grained tannins, and is very minerally and tightly knit, with a long finish. It needs time!

The 2018 Proprietary Red Wine Sage Mountain Vineyard is another magnificent wine from the Mondavi family. Soaring and regal in its intensity, the 2018 possesses breathtaking aromatic presence and tons of the pedigree that have made wines off this site so compelling pretty much since the beginning. Vibrant dark fruit, lavender, sage, mint and mocha build into an impossibly long, silky finish. The 2018 is a flat-out stunner.

Coming all from the Sage Mountain Vineyard on Pritchard Hill, the 2018 Proprietary Red Wine is a blend of 54% Cabernet Sauvignon, 31% Cabernet Franc, 9% Petit Verdot and 6% Merlot. This is classic 2018 with its dense, concentrated, slightly backward, yet full-bodied and incredibly impressive style. Offering lots of ripe black (black cherry, currant) fruits, scorched earth, graphite, and chocolate-like aromatics, it has terrific concentration, ripe, building tannins, a terrific sense of freshness, and a great finish. It's going to need 5-7 years of bottle age but will have upwards of three decades of overall longevity.

Still vibrant, youthful and fresh, the 2018 Proprietary Red features floral scents alongside sage and bay leaf nuances, all adding remarkable complexity to the cassis and black cherry notes. A blend of 54% Cabernet Sauvignon, 31% Cabernet Franc, 9% Merlot and 6% Petit Verdot, it's full-bodied and silky in feel but turns dusty and tannic on the long finish. This one needs time.