2012 Chappellet Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon

Thank goodness it's Friday!  I am certainly ready for the weekend, as it's been a long week (does it seem like every week is full of Mondays during a pandemic?!?) and now I'm ready for a glass of wine before my virtual happy hour with some fraternity brothers in a couple hours.  I haven't seen many of them in decades, so I'm looking forward to it as well as tonight's wine, the 2012 Chappellet Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.  This is from one of Napa's recent great vintages, and it's been waiting in my cellar for at least 6 years, so I thought tonight I would open it.

The wine is a deep inky indigo at the center with a bit of fuchsia along the edges, somewhat classic for a Napa Cabernet.  The nose presents aromas of ripe blackberry, currant and prune with a bit of oak and mint over the top.  The taste is much cooler than the nose suggest, with a rush of ripe black cherry, plum, and cherry cola that swirls around before giving way to some decidedly Bordeaux-esque flavors of tar, tobacco and spice box midpalate.  The tannins are supple, but firm, providing a nice base to the voluptuous dry finish that just lingers for a minute or more.

Overall, I would rate this wine a solid 9, perhaps even a 9.5 as this wine is really coming into its own nearly eight years from harvest.  This wine would pair well with a variety of hearty dishes but like many big Napa Cabernets, this one practically begs to be paired with a nice steak.  So, it's a good thing I'm enjoy this wine with a prime ribcap grilled rare on a bed of grilled leeks and topped with some horseradish, with grilled asparagus and a loaded baked potato.  Cheers!