YAO MING Family Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 2016

97 points - The Wine Advocate

95 points - JebDunnuck.com

95 points - Owen Bargreen

94 points - Wine Enthusiast

94 points - James Suckling

93 points - Vinous Media

91 points - Wine Spectator

TASTING NOTES

Appearance exhibits deep dark purple color with intense hues.  This wine is elegant and powerful.  There is focused fruit with pronounced plum, blackberry and currant.  The fruit is framed with barrel notes of toast and baking spice.  The palate has rich yet, supple, lush depth from integrated tannin structure.  The wine comes together on the finish and lingers on the back of the palate providing a long finish.  This wine is approachable now and will age for many years.  It is very elegant. 

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 being 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.