Region | |
---|---|
Subregion | U.S.A. > California > Napa Valley |
Colour | Red |
Type | Still |
The 2014 Vecina displays a deep garnet-purple color and has a broody, baked blueberries, cassis and anise-laced nose with suggestions of garrigue, dusty earth and bay leaves. Full-bodied, rich, spicy and powerful in the mouth, it offers a lot of latent layers and promises great, great things to come with an incredibly long, layered finish. It needs a bit of time but should cellar beautifully for a good 25 years+.
A nearby neighbor to Bill Harlan’s Harlan Estate, the Vecina is another 11-acre vineyard sitting on the Mayacamas mountainsides with an east-facing exposition. This is pure, pebbly, alluvial soils over fractured bedrock. The 2014 Vecina does recall Harlan Estate in its masculine, earthy, highly structured, tannic, and big, spicy, rich style. It is not as polished as Harlan Estate, and the tannins seem a little grippy, which is somewhat surprising for a 2014, but the wine has fabulous fruit on the attack and should soften with another 3-5 years of bottle age. It is definitely a 30-year wine.
Aromas of roses and blackberries with hints of sweet tobacco and forest floor. Full body characterized by orange peel, blackberries, plums and hints of cherries. Milk chocolate and terra cotta. Barrel sample.
Another awesome wine is the 2014 Vecina and it’s from a vineyard on the western side of the valley, right up next to Harlan Estate. This deep, full-bodied, seriously concentrated 2014 gives up loads of plums, currants, toasty oak, chocolate, and chalky minerality. It picks up a touch of violets with time in the glass, but the theme here is deep, dark fruit and minerality. With the forward, supple style of the vintage, it still has serious concentration and structure, and is going to be long-lived.