Amici Cellars Hirondelle Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Stags Leap District 2019

Drinking wine is an endeavor best accomplished amongst friends and family.  Even the serving vessel encourages the imbiber to share with others as a bottle holds enough for four to enjoy, unlike the beer bottle or canned cocktail designed for only one.  Some of our best ideas (and probably yours) have been concocted sitting around the table with a fantastic bottle of wine and dear friends.  Amici Cellars was cooked up from one such session, the real-life product of years of camaraderie circling wine and a desire to do more than ponder on what-ifs. As the proprietors’ decree distinctly states, Amici is wine “created by friends, for friends.”

The ACME team has found this motto to be a mission statement not only by name but wholeheartedly by practice.  On every visit to the Amici estate in Calistoga, we have been welcomed as old friends by owners John Harris and Bob & Celia Shepard and given what felt to be star treatment by winemaker Tony Biagi and their entire team.  Whether you’re there for a winery tour, a tasting and lunch, or one of their special evenings of gumbo and good company, one always leaves Amici with a sense of warmth and conviviality that reflects their team’s genuine enthusiasm.  The pure joy of creating wines of significance within their place and time radiates from ownership through the winemaking team into each colleague.  Unsurprisingly, the Amici team has established long-lasting relationships with some of the best grape growers in Napa Valley.  Vineyards can count on Tony and his team to craft distinguished wines that celebrate the terroir and eagerly champion the sites through enjoyment and storytelling around the table.

2019 marks the third vintage of Amici’s Hirondelle Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon.  Hirondelle is the winery’s first foray into the powerful style of Stags Leap District Cabernet. The red, volcanic soils of the district’s eastern portion combined with the sediment-rich earth fanning from the Napa River create low-vigor vines producing deeply concentrated berries.  Those berries translate to intensely flavored wines with brooding dark fruit cores.  Many winemakers refer to the sub-AVA’s profile as “an iron fist in a velvet glove.”

Tony blended 89% Cabernet Sauvignon with 11% Cabernet Franc from the Hirondelle Vineyard for the final wine.  To match the verve inherent in the fruit, they aged the wine in 100% new French oak barrels for 22 months before bottling.  You can sense the power in the glass with its impactful aromatics of brambly berries, plum preserves, and dusty sage.  Round, bold tannins encase an evident acidity that lifts the palate’s flavors of bitter chocolate and blackberry juice through a lingering, velvety finish.  We must insist that this gorgeous Cabernet be appreciated with loved ones, whether around a table or a campfire, and we’ll be eager to hear of the ideas dreamt up while enjoying.