Ramey Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2018

This Ramey offering of classic Napa Cabernet has always had an exceptional quality/value ratio. The 2018 is made of 89% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% Petit Verdot, 2% Merlot, and 2% Cab Franc, the blend slightly changes vintage to vintage. The fruit for this wine was labeled as Ramey Larkmead Vineyard in the past, but at a much higher price point. The Larkmead vineyard is located in the northern part of Napa Valley and has been a wine-producing vineyard since the 1880s. David Ramey is one of the best known and most highly-regarded winemakers in California. Before founding Ramey Wine Cellars in 1996, he made wine for a bevy of top wineries, including Chalk Hill, Matanzas Creek, Rudd Estate and Christian Moueix's Dominus Estate. Ramey is widely acknowledged to be among the wine pioneers whose efforts helped raise the bar for all American winemakers by going back to more Old World traditions of winemaking. He learned much about these practices during a stint working for the Moueix family at the renowned Chateau Pétrus where David was introduced to the time-honored methods of winemaking in France after graduating from UC Davis. David's groundbreaking work with indigenous yeasts, malolactic and barrel fermentation yielded a new California style that was richer, more lush and silky smooth than previously known, as well as more expressive of terroir.  

The geology and soils of Napa Valley are notoriously complex and are primarily comprised of broken down or decomposed rock that has been carried downhill from the eastern Vaca range and the western Mayacamas range into the base of the valley, where they ultimately intermingle with the silt, clay and gravel deposits of the Napa River flood plain.