2021 Mending Wall Cabernet Sauvignon Tournahu Vineyard

All clone 7 from 30-year-old vines, the 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Tournahu Vineyard offers up complex aromas of black cherries, licorice, crushed stone and mocha. It's full-bodied, creamy and plush, with hints of cola-like spice on the slightly warm finish. It's the most forward and approachable of the Mending Wall wines, without the tannic structure and cellaring potential of either the Godward Vineyard or Oakville Ranch bottlings, but that doesn't mean it won't make for delicious drinking over the next decade.

The 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Tournahu Vineyard is soft, delicate and open-knit, all of which make it a fine choice for drinking now and over the next handful of years. Crushed flowers, raspberry jam, kirsch. sweet spice, cedar, mint and rose petal are nicely delineated in a wine that shows the more restrained side of St. Helena. There's plenty of fruit, but not quite the textural opulence of most of the wines here.

The 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Tournahu Vineyard is racy and opulent to the core. Super-ripe black cherry, plum, spice, chocolate and licorice all race across the palate. This flamboyant exotic Cabernet will thrill readers who appreciate the more overt side of Napa Valley. For my taste, it is a bit pushed, but that is largely a result of a drought year and tiny yields.