A vertical tasting at Cardinale Dark fruit notes, brown spices and a touch of sweetness with elegant tannins, this wine is still powerful after 23 years but also elegant.

This superb blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot has flavors of coffee, chocolate and vanilla, and a long, creamy finish.

It is a huge wine with big fruit and tannins. It's mostly cabernet sauvignon and has spent 24 months in new French oak.

Hefty, with lots of black cherry and berry flavors, as well as quite a lot of oak and tannin. There's lots to this wine; it just needs a few years of cellaring.

Another Wow! Wine, this gorgeous blend of Merlot and Cabernet from four different vineyards was my own pick for best wine of the tasting. It was smooth, elegant and complex on the palate, with raspberry and spice flavors that segued into a long, seductive finish. Not as heavy as some of its compatriots, it would go well with lighter dishes such as chicken or fish, as well as spicy dishes that would be piquant counterpoint to its refined nature.

Here is a wine that typifies to a "tee" the opulent, optimally ripe and highly oaked formula for success in latter-day Cabernet. From its dense, cherry-raspberry aromas to its broadly filled, wonderfully well-extracted flavors, it carries a wealth of very sweet oak spice, but it never leans so far to oaky excess that its fruit is lost. Fairly tannic and a little hot at the end, the wine is also very rich to the last, and we would expect that richness to remain throughout the called-for five to eight years of cellaring.

Has a sense of elegance. It's fun to drink, with jammy cassis aromas and flavors, plus licorice, smoke. Only the price is out of proportion.

Built for age and very much demanding of it, this big, dense, decidedly tough young wine trades finesse for sheer extract and makes abundant use of savory oak spice. Very rich, but rather rugged and fit with tongue-curing tannins just now, it is the kind of wine that will age and age without ever earning the descriptor "pretty". Still, it has the mass and muscle to team with the richest beef and lamb entrees and deserves six or seven years of patience.

Favoring the ripe, dense style so prevalent in the '92s, this wine makes its way in the world for the sheer intensity of its ripe black cherry, dried plum, herb, vanilla and sweet spice aromas and weighty, mouthfilling flavors. A bit angular towards the end, it is a wine that is less likely to evolve into classical, layered Cabernet and seems better suited to marinated meats than to the typical roasts the Cabernet accompanies so well.

A great exemplar of the character and quality of the vintage.

Hints of cocoa, brush and dried orange add a bit of intrigue to a rich blend of sweet oak and ripe cherries in the neatly married aromas. While each of these elements peeks through in the flavors, they are subordinate to a simpler theme of emphatic ripeness here, and the wine is never quite so complex as it is generous.

Napa’s New Hot Wine List Here are our picks of the top 2016 Cabernet lots from Barrel Auction 2018. Cardinale With the tight structure of youth (yes, these wines are young), the Cardinale ($68,900) still gives up lovely raspberry flavors laced with fresh herbs and minerality. This has the power to live a long time in the cellar.

Very dark garnet in the glass, this wine smells of rich cherry fruit. In the mouth, lush and bright cherry fruit has a wonderful aromatic sweetness and mixes with cola and cocoa powder. Dark chocolate notes linger in the finish along with dusty tannins. Very pretty and polished. 14.5% alcohol. Score: between 9 and 9.5.

A vertical tasting at Cardinale While still young, this structured wine has floral and red and purple fruit aromas and drying elegant tannins.

Dream Cabernets From Napa & Beyond An esteemed brand in the Jackson Family portfolio, Cardinale, located in Oakville, produces a single Cabernet Sauvignon each vintage. Consistently at the top of the charts, this wine has earned 98 points from Wine Advocate. Winemaker Christopher Carpenter says this blend of 88% Cabernet Sauvignon and 12% Merlot, sourced from multiple vineyards, from Veeder Peak to Spring Mountain to Howell Mountain reminds him of a great vintage of Pontet-Canet from Pauillac. Aged in 94% new French oak, he describes it as slightly bigger than life, which is a serious understatement. Massive aromas of cedar, graphite, tobacco and crème de cassis can hardly prepare you for this profoundly concentrated monster, packed with black currant and seething with tightly wound acid and gargantuan, yet silky tannins. This is the T-rex of the cabs in this collection.

Amazing fruit purity – all cassis. Some floral and spicy notes on the palate, and a plush, balanced tannic feel on the palate. Impressive and glossy, but not gross – this has savoury sensibilities and a dry, lengthy finish. 17.5/20

Deep crimson. Really pretty luscious on the nose but not over the top – apart from the price! A fine-grained, very slightly sandy texture keeps it interesting. Although it’s not short of alcohol, it’s not sweet. Luscious but I think I would understand it better if I knew exactly where the fruit came from. Clean, bracing and far from heavy. 17/20

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.