2016 Woodward Canyon Cabernet Sauvignon Old Vines

Bright medium red-ruby. Pungent aromas of cassis, black cherry, boysenberry, violet, licorice and graphite minerality, plus some exotic oak notes of cocoa powder, coffee and spices and distinct pyrazine elements of black pepper and piquant herbs. Surprisingly thick and plush but edgy on the palate, with tightly wound flavors of cassis, black cherry, violet, graphite, crushed rock, mint and herbs joined by a note of inky new oak. The average vine yield here was no more than 2.5 tons per acre, according to winemaker Mott, and that's obvious in the wine's concentration and medicinal reserve. Finishes sweet but firm-edged, with sneaky building length, the rather fine-grained tannins supported by the wine's powerful material. The 2015 version seemed creamier at the same stage; this wine is still an infant but should evolve in bottle for a long time. Seemed to gain in chocolatey sweetness as it opened in the glass. Mott told me he likes to start drinking this bottling between five and seven years after the harvest. (15.2% alcohol; 100% new oak; entirely made from vines planted in the early 1970s, 75% of them at Sagemoor)