Description
Cornell Vineyards, Cabernet Sauvignon
The swanky, ever-growing California Cab sphere contains an endless number of $200 labels. Most of them can be filtered out, some are deserving of a second look, and a special few are impossible to ignore. Cornell is one of those latter rarities: They’ve been called “one of the greatest success stories in Northern California;” their tightly allocated Cabernet is consistently racking up near-perfect reviews; and one critic has even compared them to a young Château Margaux. With my curiosity fully piqued, I felt compelled to visit the property last month and quickly learned that the deafening hype, the jaw-dropping scores, and the wild mythologizing were all 100% legitimate.
All this didn’t happen overnight. After a dozen years of experimentation, without ever releasing a single vintage to the public, the Cornells made one decision in 2013 that forever changed their trajectory and sent them hurtling towards the legendary realm of cult Cabernet: the hiring of Françoise Peschon. A two-time “Winemaker of the Year” recipient, Peschon quietly has her hands in some of California’s most revered labels, but it’s hard to fathom a more sophisticated, powerful, and magnificently deep Cabernet than today’s masterpiece. This 2018 marks her sixth release with Cornell, and the results are unanimous across the board: It’s the best she’s made. As such, it’s fully allocated, very rare, and absolutely worth splurging on. No more than four bottles per person.
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BONUS: Want a taste of “Northern California’s greatest success story” without dropping $185? In the spirit of Classified Bordeaux second labels, Cornell also has one of their own. It’s an even-more limited cuvée at half the price, and it’s absolutely stunning. Secure a few bottles here.
I love wine travel as much as wine itself, and there are certain roadways around the world that, for me, might as well be paved with golden bricks. There’s Burgundy’s Route des Grands Crus, of course, which runs from Dijon to Santenay and passes through the greatest Chardonnay and Pinot Noir vineyards in the world; there’s Italy’s Via Aurelia, an old Roman road that hugs the Mediterranean Coast from Rome to Nice; and then there’s the route to Cornell Vineyards, a winding mountain pass known as Spring Mountain/St. Helena road. Start in St. Helena, head west, and soon you’re in a dense thicket of world-famous Cabernet Sauvignon producers: Philip Togni, Keenan, Lokoya, Pride Mountain…and, just after you’ve crossed the Napa/Sonoma County line, Cornell Vineyards.
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Some 20 years ago, Vanessa and Henry Cornell found this remote property, perched at 1,900 feet in the Mayacamas Range, with a history of vine cultivation dating back to the area’s earliest settlers. Of the 240 acres they acquired, they devoted 20 to painstakingly farmed Cabernet vineyards and enlisted a dream team to craft classically styled, critically acclaimed wines. The winemaking is headed by 2019 San Francisco Chronicle and 2021 Vinous “Winemaker of the Year” Françoise Peschon.
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The Cornell’s vineyards fall within a relatively new Sonoma AVA (American Viticultural Area) called the Fountaingrove District, which was once famous for a “cult” winery of a different sort—that of utopian spiritualist Thomas Lake Harris, who ran a sizable ranch and winery in the area in the late-1800s. The soils combine sedimentary loam and gravel mixed with volcanic deposits, at altitudes that often climb above the “fog line” that makes this one of the coolest sub-appellations in the Napa Valley. The relatively mild temperatures at altitude, combined with intense luminosity, combine to create wines that are intense and concentrated, yet balanced and complex.
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Over the course of three weeks, Cornell’s vines were carefully monitored for optimal ripeness and harvested by hand. In the cellar, the grapes fermented varietally separate, by parcel, and were then blended together to begin their 20-month journey in high-quality, tightly grained French oak barrels, 62% of which were new. After bottling in June of 2020, the wines were then allowed to rest for an additional months before their allocated release. This is such a sensational, plush, seamlessly constructed Cabernet. It fills a Bordeaux stem with an opaque dark purple core and returns superbly lifted, highly intoxicating aromas of black raspberry, cassis, ripe black cherry, crème de violette, pencil lead, cigar wrapper, tobacco leaf, charred earth, crushed black rock, and heaps of mouthwatering baking spices. The full-bodied palate sweeps through with luxuriously smooth, dark-fruited textures that reverberate for nearly a minute on the finish. It’s a profound Cabernet, one that will easily coexist in a cellar filled with First Growths for decades to come.
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