The ‘03 Carpenter Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon is a complicated marksman. A wine that somehow, after taking your senses on a long detour through the blackberry bush, the tobacco plantation, and the coffee shop, still manages to hit its mark – it’s a distinct, perfectly balanced, ripe Cab. I decanted a bottle of this last night and enjoyed it with a couple of friends. We tossed around a number of expletives – many of which can’t be published here. The wine was astounding, and far more refined than my crew. I’m glad I have 11 bottles left. I’ll be drinking two a year for the next 5 years or so.

Nickel & Nickel is a stampede wine specialist. The winery’s production is miniscule (only 979 cases for the Carpenter Vinyard cab). They only bottle 100% varietal wines – no blending here. Their focus is singular, only bottling single vineyard wines. Why do we love it? The Wineries and winemakers who choose to bottle single vineyard wines are doing so in a nod to the idea that their wines are communicating something about a place. In this case, Nickel & Nickel  wants you to know that the Cabernet Sauvignon grape and the Carpenter Vineyard combine to bring you ripe, beautiful complexity – a choir of angels in a glass. For a less poetic explanation, check out this definition of the term Terroir.

Here’s what the winery has to say about the 2003 vintage of their Carpenter Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon.

Carpenter Vineyard is located in Coombsville, an area just east of the city of Napa.
Nickel & Nickel’s eight-acre block is comprised of deep, gravelly loam, and the climate
is notable for its morning fog and cooler-than-average daytime temperatures. These
cooler conditions and west-northwest exposure allow slow ripening and long hang
time, which helps develop tannin maturity. This is one of the last Nickel & Nickel
vineyards to be harvested each year.

This wine opens with a very interesting aroma of ripe, briary fruit. Flavors of plum
and cassis fill the palate and combine with toffee, coffee and earth. Layers of dried
herb and chocolate blend with the cedary oak, providing sweet impressions on the
middle palate that carry through to a long, rich finish. This tight core of fruit
surrounded by fleshy tannins is the signature of the vineyard.

Nickel & Nickel Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, Carpenter Vineyard, 2003
$70.25/bottle