Wine Advisor
Bryant Family, Cabernet Sauvignon 2013
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Robert M. Parker, Jr.
The flagship wine, the 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate, comes from a magnificent hillside vineyard overlooking Lake Hennessey (13 acres) and is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon. This wine has an incredible track record, with some legendary efforts such as the 1995, 1997, and most recent vintages since 2005, as well as the 2013 all beauties. The classic purity of blueberry and blackberry fruit as well as white flowers and subtle background oak is followed by a full-bodied, voluptuously textured, multi-layered wine that is stunningly lush, with sweet, sweet tannin and beautiful purity and length. This excellent wine can be drunk early on or cellared for another 25 or more years.
Reviewed by: Antonio Galloni
The 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon is distinctly powerful and savory, with huge mountain tannins and tons of personality. Inky, dense as midnight and powerful, the estate Cabernet Sauvignon is a terrific example of the year, although the oak imprint is overpowering. Graphite, smoke, licorice, tar, torrefaction, incense and blood orange flow through to the rich, opulent finish.
Reviewed by: Stephen Tanzer
Bright medium ruby. Heady scents of blueberry, blackberry, licorice and graphite minerality are complemented by coffee and briney olive notes. Much less unctuous on the palate than the nose suggests; not austere but juicy, backward and firmly built. The wine's concentrated black fruit flavors are given sex appeal by graphite minerality and an element of sweet oak, with integrated acidity providing terrific definition and energy. This wonderfully suave, fine-grained wine possesses a serious tannic structure for a long and graceful evolution in bottle. I suspect it will be longer-lived than the 2012. Winemaker Marc Gagnon noted that 2013 was an ideal vintage that featured an early set and an early harvest, with no extremes.
About the Producer
Bryant Family Vineyard, located in Saint Helena, California, was established in 1987 by Don Bryant and Barbara Bryant. The original winemaker was Helen Turley and the current winemaker is Helen Keplinger. The Bryant family winery was praised by Parker from the very first vintage. The estate can produce upwards of 2,000 cases per year. The 5.3 hectare vineyard is located on Pritchard Hill at an altitude of 1,500 feet and is blessed with a microclimate where the cool breeze from the west across Lake Hennessey in the summer helps to cool the vineyard and facilitate the growth of the grapes. In addition, the soil is of high quality and covered with small and large stones for good drainage. The ideal distribution of light in the morning and evening, combined with the good drainage of the stony soil, also makes the vines more inclined to root deeper to absorb water. The average age of the vines is 10 years and the planting density is 5,000 vines per hectare. Yields are in the region of 3.8 tonnes per hectare. During the harvest season, the fruit is carefully selected by the workers. Fruit from different parts of the vineyard, and even from different sides of the yin and yang, are placed in different picking baskets, which are only half full, and transported to the winery. At the winery, the fruit is sorted and destemmed and, after a second re-sorting, it sinks by gravity to the bottom of the tank. The fermentation is preceded by a cold maceration of 5 days and then all the grapes are fermented in open top stainless steel tanks before being aged for 18 months in new French oak barrels. Bottling is done without any filtration or clarification. The winemaking consultant at the winery is Michel Rolland, the famous wine patriarch. In addition to the main label, the Bryant family winery also produces a secondary label (Bettina Bryant), which follows the style of a "Bordeaux blend", combining Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Merlot and Petit Verdot. It is also worth noting that Parker gave the estate's 1997 Cabernet Sauvignon 100 points and WineSpectator scored it 94 points. This Cabernet Sauvignon is well balanced, dense and capable of being cellared for 30-35 years. The recent best vintages of the estate are: 1996, 1997, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006.
