2016 Pulido-Walker Cabernet Sauvignon Melanson Vineyard

From a site in the same area as Colgin and vines planted in 1998, the 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Melanson Vineyard offers a rocking bouquet of chocolaty black and blue fruits, truffle, charcoal embers, and earthy nuances. This full-bodied beauty has a ripe, layered, seamless texture and is perfectly balanced. It’s another gem from the genius of Thomas Rivers Brown. It’s also worth pointing out that the farm at this site, which has lagged in the past, is now being handled by Josh Clark, who handles the farming for Outpost and Mending Wall.

The 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Melanson Vineyard is extraordinary, and perhaps the best wine I have tasted from Pulido-Walker so far. In 2016, the Melanson is remarkably polished and delineated, with tremendous class and exceptional balance. Red and purplish berry fruit and floral notes open up in the glass, but it is the wine's exceptional polish that leaves the deepest impression. Quite frankly, the 2016 redefines what might be possible here. All of the Cabernets I tasted from Melanson this year show notable improvement now that Josh Clark is overseeing the farming, but none is more compelling than Pulido-Walker's wine.