Another legendary wine from Thomas Rivers Brown, the 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Lore Vineyard matches the perfect 2015 and is as good as Cabernet Sauvignon gets. Reminding me a great vintage of Schrader’s Old Sparky, its deep purple color is followed by a sumptuous, other-worldly bouquet of crème de cassis, blueberries, violets, spring flowers, and camphor. Full-bodied and powerful, it’s the purity of fruit, poise, and balance that make this wine so special. With fine tannins and no hard edges, it satisfies both the intellectual and hedonistic parts of the brain and is magical stuff. As with the Herb Lamb release, you can drink it any time over the coming 20-25+ years.

The 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Lore Vineyard is sensational. Dark, powerful and explosive, the 2016 expresses all the best this rugged hillside site has to offer. Graphite, crushed rocks, menthol, licorice, smoke and dark spice explode from the glass. In most vintages, the Lore is massively tannic, but the 2016 has tremendous purity of fruit and exceptional balance. It is one of the best – maybe the best – Rivers-Marie Cabernet I have ever tasted.

A barrel sample, the 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Lore Vineyard gives a very deep purple-black color and opens with restrained earth and savory notes of mossy bark, truffles, tilled soil, bay leaves and tobacco with a core of red and black currants, blackberries and pencil shavings. Medium-bodied, the palate is very finely played and fresh, giving up loads of earth and black fruit layers, finishing with great length.