2007 Round Pond Cabernet Sauvignon - USA, California, Napa Valley, Rutherford

Needs an hour decant time. Super dark and luxurious, the nose is all sweet black fruits and some soft oak. The palate has pure creme de cassis, Kirsh Royal, blackberry, black cherry, black raspberries with a hint of cedar box and tobacco. Some lead pencil and some soy but the big star here is the intensity and purity that seems almost converor-like delivered with elegance and focus one usually wishes for in a Napa Cab, and does not always get. Its tanins are intricate and complicated, and the mouth feel is medium weight, soft full & plushy. What really caught my attention was the finish; it was long and pure fruited, and I mean looooong. 5 minutes later I was still tasting this wine, and that ain't too bad.

One to keep your eye on. Thomas Rivers Brown is the consulting winemaker. (91 pts.)

2007 Jean Edwards Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Seventy Four - Forty One Napa Valley - USA, California, Napa Valley

A light shaded red color with some crimson edges. Nose of sweet black cherry, cola, cardamom, and wild flowers. The palate unwinds with some fantastic red leaning black fruits. A very 'pretty' wine with an almost pinot noir sensibility?? It's a light weight wine with a classy elegant mouth-feel. There is some lead pencil, red cherry, red currant a hint of sassafras, some cedar with a hint of oak. This is a super balanced Cab with nothing gobby, nothing flashy, nothing that wants to command the room; a real welcome in a sea of big burly Napa Cabs. Very consistent with my last note with maybe just a little more cohesiveness. A real beauty, and one I am glad I have more of.
Well done Karen & John. (93 pts.)