Component Wine Company Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 2021

Have you ever witnessed a sommelier taste a wine, listened to their descriptions, and thought: are we drinking the same wine?  They’re perceiving aromas and throwing out descriptors like black currant jam and dew-covered granite that drill down much deeper than those you are smelling.  An experience like this might leave you, the eager wine student, with your wheels spinning, wondering how you could ever reach that level of discernment.  With the expansive nature of wine, those who wish to learn how to taste face the daunting task of where to start.  As with most knowledge-seeking and skill-developing endeavors, it is best to start with the basics.  Experience and memorize the classic characteristics of individual varietals and the stylistic tendencies of winemaking regions, and you’re on your way to distinguishing those components when you taste.  This is where Component Wine Company comes in, introducing their 2021 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.

Sommelier turned Vintner Michael Kennedy founded Component Wine Company as a platform to produce what he considers “honest expressions of single varietals from the finest vineyards in Napa Valley.”  He states the Component ethos plainly: “Our vineyard sources are as solid as any, but our desire is simple: to give you an intimate experience with varietal and place.” After working for years as a Sommelier with the industry’s elite, like Chef Eric Ripert and sommeliers Aldo Sohm and Rajat Parr, Michael set his sights on Napa Valley with his mentors cheering him on with every step.  Michael selected friend and winemaker Marc Gagnon (previously of Bryant Family Vineyards) to craft these benchmark wines.  In 2013, they debuted the first Component wine, a Petit Verdot from Napa, which received much acclaim.  After the first vintage, a world of opportunity opened, and the brand expanded to include Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, and today’s feature, Cabernet Sauvignon.

Component’s 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon hails from Caldwell Vineyard in the Coombsville sub-AVA of Napa Valley.  John Caldwell planted the vineyard in the early 1980s to French clonal varieties after a Hollywood-style scandal involving US & Canadian customs, a French grapevine nursery, and burying rootstock and vines on the property to hide from California officials.  Despite the drama surrounding the illicit procurement of the original vines, Caldwell’s vineyard flourished and, for the decades since, has been the fruit source for top Napa brands like Dunn, Pahlmeyer, Patz and Hall, and Joseph Phelps.  The vineyard sits in a volcanic caldera where the soil composition imparts distinct minerality to the grapes, and the naturally cooler temperatures in Coombsville allow for a more extended ripening period and maintain pronounced acidity on the palate.

Marc split the fruit between stainless steel and French oak puncheons for the native fermentation, and once fermented, the wine aged in 80% new French oak.  This youthful wine exhibits vibrancy and intensity with complex, brooding aromas.  Notes of dark fruits like black cherry and wild blackberry mingle with licorice candies and mocha.  Bright acidity highlights flavors of espresso, blueberry, and cedar, and firm tannins extend through the finish.  If you want to know Napa Cab intrinsically, sip a glass of 2021 Component Cabernet Sauvignon and learn the nuance of the famed varietal and region.