10 Cabernet Sauvignons From Napa Valley That Challenge the ‘Reds from California’ Stereotype Deep and meaty on the nose, with beef carpaccio, bakers chocolate, porcini, espresso, and hoisin sauce leading to flavors of cherry, blackberry, Chinese five-spice powder, and violets. Great now, and will continue to evolve for another three decades.

What To Drink Now: Balanced Red Blends Some of the world’s finest wines are blends, and here are a few standout options to consider. (Some were sent for editorial consideration.) Cheers... Though Cardinale is primarily Cabernet Sauvignon, the wine captures the essence of great blending. Winemaker Chris Carpenter meticulously crafts the best of Napa’s mountain districts, developing a wine with graphite, black fruit, dried tobacco, and spice.

What to Drink Now: Napa Cabernet Sauvignon A good bottle of Cab remains a go-to wine Napa Valley delivers sublime Cabernet Sauvignon options. The joy is finding what your palate prefers. Here are a few to try this season. (Some were sent for editorial consideration.) Get a taste of all of these delicious wines and more, while helping the Napa Valley community, at Auction Napa Valley May 31 through June 3, presented annually by the Napa Valley Vintners. For lovers of high-elevation mountain fruit, consider Cardinale ($250) which blends five of Napa’s mountain ranges into layers of dried blueberry, leather, cigar box and espresso for an earthy representation of textured, highly structured Cabernet Sauvignon. Or highlighted in individual mountain AVAs, like Cardinale sister wines La Jota ($75) from Howell Mountain and Mt. Brave ($75) from Mount Veeder, both concentrated, dense and divine.

Wine of incredible quality in a breathtaking setting 86 percent Cabernet with 14 percent Merlot blended in. Rich texture and refined aromas of dark fruits and smoke with flavors of black cherry, plum and toffee.

The Perfect Christmas Wines For The Holiday Season This wine is true elegance. This hefty Bordeaux blend (largely Cabernet Sauvignon with some Merlot) showcases rich flavours of cassis, mint and raspberry with a moreish earthiness thanks to its incredible terroir.

Wine Style Awards - 2nd place (2/10) - Napa Valley Bordeaux category

A vertical tasting at Cardinale Considered one of the coolest vintages ever, the wine has notes of bell pepper, dark cherry and spice and grippy tannins.

Rich on the nose, black fruit, fine oak, full, juicy, tight tannins, very good potential, a lot of depth, long.

Very supple and caressing, yet vibrant and succulent. Nicely oaked, with rich cassis and hints of cedar and mocha. As suave as Napa Cabernet gets.

Cardinale 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley is an utterly silky composition of fruit from some of Napa's most important mountain appellations. Its soft aromas of rose and lavender greet the nose, while saturated flavors of boysenberry, black coffee, dark chocolate, dried cherry, strawberry, and mint coat the palate.

Bright, lively crimson with some evolution at the rim. Very rich fruit but with admirable energy underneath. Round, evolved, sweet yet fresh with some mineral notes. Excellent evolution. 17/20

This superb Bordeaux-style blend tempers the natural tannic force of Napa Valley's hillside and mountain vineyards with flawless balance, a silky texture, and intricately layered expressions of lavender, boysenberry, and exotic wood.

Cardinale creates only a single wine in vintage from fruit grown in Oakville's famous To Kalon, Mount Veeder's Veeder Peak, and Howell Mountain's Keyes vineyards. Each of these unique terroirs contributes the threads of flavor and aroma in Cardinale's singular tapestry of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Harmoniously balanced, this vintage presents velvety layers and layers of mocha java and blackberry.

A vertical tasting at Cardinale Considered a perfect year, this wine is very pretty with aromas of fruit, graphite and anise and velvety tannins.

The 2006 vintage is a harvest of black cherry, licorice, smoke, and mineral.

A perfect balance of the rich and the vibrant, this is a textbook Napa Valley cabernet. It's blended from vineyards on Mt. Veeder, Howell Mountain, Stags Leap District, Spring Mountain and Oakville (To Kalon). The flavors layer black currant and black cherry with redder fruit tones and floral notes. Remarkably, it maintains that detail and freshness even with the youthful potency of its structure add the aggressive power of its extract; you can virturally see the tannin dripping down the sides of the glass. A lovely young wine to decant for Kobo beef, this has the stamina for aging ten years or more.

An uncommonly pure, elegant vintage of this Bordeaux-style blend of fruit from mountain vineyards in Napa Valley, the 2005 is deeply saturated, thanks in large part to a late harvest. Flavors of black cherry, black currant, black licorice, and dark chocolate lie atop a soft, dense, velvety texture.

A vertical tasting at Cardinale Floral aromas as well as notes of black cherry cassis and anise are present in this wine that has silky tannins and has many more years of life left.

This Bordeaux-style red is cloaked in a royal robe of dark purple fruit-- blackberry, black cherry, dark plum--that enfolds a treasure of flavors: lavender, vanilla, coffee, toasted oak.

Pale straw appearance. Medium-bodied. Full acidity. Moderately extracted. Tart peach, lemon, vanilla. Faint vanilla notes with lemony aromas that follow through on the palate. A red tart with subtle oak.

First-rate winemaking is evident. The wine possesses a certain elegance, especially in its balance.

Redolent with ripe figs and melons and just the slightest hint of sweet toasted oak. The high-profile fruit flavors have great texture and are balanced nicely with crisp green apple acidity. Added complexity comes from subtle toasty oak notes and a pleasant herbal accents. The finish is long and fruity.

Tasting of melons, butter, toast and oak, the wine conveys a fine sense of richness.

Very ripe, rich melon, fig/fruit flavors; mainly sauvignon but not herbaceous; fine acid balance. Eat with Chicken with sweet red pepper sauce; grilled fin fish; crab quiche; bouillabaisse; veal chops.