Wine Advisor
Verite, La Muse 2012
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Description
Profound and sophisticated, La Muse delivers the incredible depth and texture with a Merlot-based blend from the top micro-crus of eastern Sonoma County. Like a graceful swan, it embodies elegance, softness and strength.
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Robert M. Parker, Jr.
The 2012 La Muse, a blend of 85% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc and 5% Malbec from Bennett Valley, Alexander Valley, Chalk Hill and Knights Valley, reveals wonderful sucrosity along with a sexy, up-front perfume of plums, graphite, licorice, Christmas fruitcake, kirsch, black currants and blackberries. This big, full-bodied, opulently-styled wine will probably be the easiest to drink early on, although it certainly needs at least 5 years in the bottle to reach its peak. It should keep for 25+ years. (Not yet released) This is the flagship, luxury, world-class winery of the late Jess Jackson’s portfolio of small, high quality estates. Jackson convinced Bordelais Pierre Seillan to come to California from St.-Emilion to make these wines, and Verite has been one of the classics for well over a decade. The La Muse cuvee represents a Pomerol-styled wine, La Joie a Medoc and Le Desir a St.-Emilion. These are long-term, concentrated, tannic efforts that usually require 5-10 years of bottle age, and are meant to age for at least three decades. The 2012s possess fabulous potential. It is nearly impossible to decide which of the three cuvees is the finest (it probably depends on your own personal stylistic predilections), but the alcohols are normal for a top California vintage, ranging from 14.1% to 14.3%. Obviously, 2011 was a much more challenging vintage, and the wines reflect that although they are unquestionably successful, even in this vintage. Pierre Seillan told me that the harvest was extremely late, and there had to be an enormous amount of selection done both in the vineyard and the winery to create these cuvees. A relatively cool, late-harvest year with a tiny crop, the 2010 vintage required a tremendous selection process as well as meticulous work in both the vineyard and winery. All three offerings have turned out to be surprisingly approachable for young Verite wines. A great vintage for Verite that rivals 2012 and probably what was achieved in 2013 is 2009. It was the type of vintage that Seillan desires – high in tannin, high in extract, with incredible upside potential for all three cuvees. The 2009s are the most backward and powerful of the four vintages reviewed in this report. The alcohols ranged from 14.5% to 14.6+%. Tel. (707) 433-9000
Reviewed by: Robert M. Parker, Jr.
The 2012 La Muse, which is 85% Merlot, 11% Cabernet Franc and 4% Malbec, is a smaller cuvée of 1,840 cases. The wine has plenty of spice box, cedar wood, Christmas fruitcake and Asian plum sauce, along with black cherry and blackcurrant fruit. Ripe, round, full-bodied and opulent, this is a wine that can be drunk now or cellared for another three decades. Interestingly, the alcohol levels are not all that high in any of these wines, with most of them rarely exceeding 14.3%.
Reviewed by: Antonio Galloni
The 2012 La Muse is plump, juicy and forward; in other words a very typical expression of this vintage. Now at nearly five years of age, the 2012 is beginning to develop pretty aromatic notes that add complexity and nuance. Sweet tobacco, licorice, raspberry jam, mint and anise are all pushed forward. With time in the glass, the 2012 turns delicate and more refined, but it also seems to be going through a bit of a lull today.
Reviewed by: Antonio Galloni
Mocha, chocolate, dark plums, smoke and cloves are some of the notes that inform the 2012 La Muse. Dark, sumptuous and impeccably balanced, the 2012 is super-impressive. The flavors are bold and intense, and while there is plenty of size and volume, the wine's balance is simply impeccable. I imagine the 2012 will reward drinkers with a good 20 years or so of very fine drinking pleasure.
Reviewed by: Stephen Tanzer
(14% alcohol; 85% merlot, 11% cabernet franc and 4% malbec): Deep ruby. Wonderfully pure aromas and flavors of crushed cassis, minerals and exotic spices. Huge, sweet and plush but utterly primary for a wine with so much flesh. Boasts the chocolatey richness of a topnotch Pomerol from a great year, but the wine's huge, ripe tannins will require at least five or six years of aging. Finishes with outstanding length.
Reviewed by: Antonio Galloni
The 2012 La Muse is plump, juicy and forward; in other words a very typical expression of this vintage. Now at nearly five years of age, the 2012 is beginning to develop pretty aromatic notes that add complexity and nuance. Sweet tobacco, licorice, raspberry jam, mint and anise are all pushed forward. With time in the glass, the 2012 turns delicate and more refined, but it also seems to be going through a bit of a lull today.
About the Producer
Verite is a local boutique winery located in Sonoma County, California, USA. Verite Winery is a winery owned by Jackson Family Wines. The winery name "Verite" means "truth" in French, which means that the wines produced by the winery can faithfully show the local terroir characteristics. The winemaker of the winery is Pierre Seillan, a famous winemaker with 22 years of winemaking experience in Bordeaux, France. (Haut-Medoc) winemaker and technical guide of 7 Bordeaux wineries in the production area. In the 1990s, Celine, who was a winemaker at a winery in Bordeaux at the time, met Jess Jackson, president of the Jackson family wine business, and the two hit it off. Soon Celine accepted Jess' invitation to come Sonoma County makes great wines. With the joint efforts of the two, Winery Truth released its first vintage in 1998. Over the years, the winery has been adhering to the winemaking philosophy of interpreting the truth of the soil and showing the unique terroir. The winery’s vineyards are located in the Alexander Valley, Bennett Valley, Knights Valley and Chalk Hill appellations. These appellations vary in terroir and hill topography, elevation and slope orientation, resulting in a diverse range of micro-vineyards under the estate’s entire vineyard. There are more than 40 different types of soil in the vineyard, among them, rocky and red volcanic soils provide ideal conditions for the growth of Cabernet Sauvignon (Cabernet Sauvignon) and Merlot (Merlot). In addition, the vineyard is also planted Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. During the grape growing process, the winery precisely controls the differences between different vineyards, the characteristics of the grape plants and even the subtle differences between each spore or tendril, so that the wine produced can reflect the characteristics of the local terroir. Currently, the wines released by the winery are Verite La Muse, Verite La Joie and Verite Le Desir. Among them, the creation of the Muse of Truth is inspired by the Pomerol wines and made from the quality Merlot of Sonoma County, which is balanced and elegant; the Joy of Truth has the depth and elegance of a good Cabernet Sauvignon. Strength, reminiscent of Pauillac-style wines from Bordeaux; Desire of Truth red wines with the suppleness of Saint-Emilion Cabernet Franc. The three series of blends, Le Desir, La Joie and La Muse, have all been awarded full marks by the Robert Parker Points.
