Today’s Wine Story: Napa Meritage from Favia Wine:  Carbone Red Wine Napa Valley 2016

Carbone Red Wine Napa Valley 2016 is an inky purple color, with dense viscosity. While deep, pure fruit aromas and flavors redolent of blackberry, black cherry, and blueberry.   In addition, tinged with complex notes of eucalyptus, clove, allspice, and violets. Dense but not weighty, full-bodied but graceful, with plush tannins. And a 45-60-second sustained, evolving finish. Great now for its freshness and full body.  But should evolve further complexity through 2036. Most of all, an amazing Napa Meritage from Screaming Eagle Alum Andy Erickson and Viticulturist Annie Favia.

What is it:  Napa Meritage | Unique blend with the main component of Cabernet Franc | Cab Franc · Cabernet · Merlot · Petit Verdot | Napa, CA | 95WA

Price:   $75

Link: Carbone Red Wine Napa Valley 2016

Pairs with:  finest red meat, comfort foods, and hard cheese.  Try with Standing Rib Roast or rare London broil.

Ratings:  95 Points – Wine Access

Why WBOTD chose this Napa Meritage

⇒ $75 for a ‘Grand Cru’ from a Screaming Eagle legend

⇒ Get in early – this will be first-year ‘critics’ are allowed to rate – will rival Ovid, Arietta & Dalle Valle at a fraction of the price

⇒ If you like to cellar your wines, this will be a sensational complex masterpiece in 7-10 years

⇒ Winemaker Andy Erickson is the maestro of the finest Napa Meritage

⇒ For those of you not yet familiar with Favia Wines, Andy Erickson and Annie Favia are a powerhouse couple you should get to know

⇒ How often do you find a wine to cellar for two decades from a can’t miss team?

Winemaker Andy Erickson | Screaming Eagle Alum

While a list of the perfect 100-point and near-perfect critical scores that Winemaker Andy Erickson has received in his career would take up an entire page. But during the first several years, no Favia wines were submitted for review. Instead, Andy and Annie offered them exclusively to their mailing list and a handful of select restaurants. Annie credits Thomas Keller’s The French Laundry as being one of their strongest early supporters.

With our wine business, what started literally as a garage project has bloomed into something sustainable.  And we have attracted a small but formidable team, strengthening our ability to grow and improve.  While I am fortunate to travel and work with wineries in other parts of the world, I feel incredibly lucky to call Napa Valley my home.  And I am constantly marveled by the diversity of soils and microclimates in this small buy diverse valley.