Lail J. Daniel Cuvée 2021

Lail's 2021 J. Daniel Cuvée Cabernet Sauvignon blends lots from several high-end vineyards, including Heimark (Calistoga), Vine Hill Ranch (Oakville) and Steltzner (Stags Leap), plus Lail's own Mole Hill on Howell Mountain. It's an exciting wine, starting from the pulse-quickening aromas of raspberries and black cherries tinged with dark chocolate. In the mouth, this full-bodied beauty is richly concentrated, with a sensuous texture somewhere between silky and velvety, while the softly dusty finish shows terrific length and a spine-tingling hint of licorice. To reduce this wine to deceptively simple yet hard-to-pin-down words, it's complex, harmonious and elegant, yet it's enough of its place that it could only come from Napa Valley.

Matching power with complexity, Robin Lail's densely concentrated, 100% Cabernet Sauvignon once again goes deep in black currants, blackberries, cocoa and toasted oak flavors. Velvety, mouthcoating tannins give the structure for a long aging period. Best from 2027-2040.

One of the finest wines in the vintage, the 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon J. Daniel Cuvee is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon from the Dutch Henry Canyon area in Calistoga, Vine Hill Ranch in Oakville, and Stelzner in Stags Leap (which was added in 2018). It spent 20 months in 75% new French oak. Still tight and inward, it has sensational purity in its currant, mulberry, truffly earth, graphite, and leather aromatics. These carry to a full-bodied, rich, incredibly concentrated 2021 that has the vintage's fresher, focused style, ripe tannins, flawless balance, and a great finish. It's going to benefit from 4-5 years of bottle age and evolve for a quarter of a century.

The 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon J. Daniel Cuvee is exceptional. Inky, vibrant and beautifully savory, the 2021 is one of the best editions I can remember tasting. The 2021 is a blend from Vine Hill Ranch, Heimark, Mole Hill and Steltzner, a combination that works so well. Blue/purplish fruit, lavender, graphite and spice build into the super-expressive finish. The move toward greater freshness over these last few years has really paid off. I especially admire the precision here. This is an archetype for contemporary Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.