YAO MING Family Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 2014

94+ Points - Robert Parker

TASTING NOTES

Appearance exhibits deep, dark, purple color with intense hues. This wine is elegant and balanced, yet powerful. There is focused fruit with pronounced plum and blackberry. The fruit is framed with barrel notes of toast and baking spice. The pallet has a jammy yet supple, lush richness from integrated tannin structure. The wine comes together with a long finish and lingers on the back of the pallet. This wine is approachable now and will age for many years. The 2015 growing season was a nearly perfect year in Napa Valley due to exquisitely-timed fruit set (the time of year when the fertilized flowers morph into small grape bunches). We had good balance on the fruiting wire. This is a year that makes the winemaker focus on intense purity and bring out the essence of the vintage.

WINEMAKING

Fruit was rigorously hand-sorted and fully destemmed to small stainless steel tanks with light crushing. Cold soaks (5-7 days), warm fermentations between 29– 32°C (85-90°F), and moderate pumpovers twice each day. Total skin contact ranged from 19-34 days with all fermentations carefully basket pressed and put to barrel on full fermentation lees for malolactic fermentation (ML). Racking was twice per year with only one assemblage being done to allow the blend to “marry” in barrel. Barrels for final blend were hand selected by taste. Native yeast and ML used with only small lots conducted using cultured Bordeaux isolates. Bottled without filtration.