Dalecio Family Wines Cabernet Sauvignon Coombsville 2019

Scott and Kathleen Dalecio are Bay Area natives whose professional lives lay at the intersection of resorts, hotels, and hospitality, which led them further afield to Hawaii and Southern California. But this dynamic duo always harbored a desire to return to their Northern California roots and imbue that love of hospitality into a home in the Napa Valley- with a fantastic wine on the table to share with family and friends.

Fortuitously, Scott and Kathleen stumbled upon a tidy little vineyard estate to call their own here in Napa, just south of us in Rutherford. So intertwined are hospitality, wine, and family for them, each Dalecio cork is emblazoned with the phrase “Love, etc.!” which is the cheerful sendoff used by Kathleen’s father, John, to conclude all his correspondence with his children and grandchildren. While the dream is ultimately to offer estate wine, the Dalecio wines are sourced from some of the most coveted districts here in Napa, including Diamond Mountain, Pritchard Hill, Oakville, and Coombsville. Not simply satisfied with procuring the best fruit from the ultimate locales, Scott and Kathleen have teamed up with none other than the iconic winemakers Philippe Melka (Tusk Estates, Dana Estates, Vice Versa) and Maayan Koschitzky (Atelier Melka, La Pelle, Brilliant Mistake) to craft wines of outstanding caliber.

This Cabernet Sauvignon showcases two storied and classic Coomsbville vineyards, Caldwell and Glass Slipper. 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 decades since, has been the fruit source for top Napa brands like Dunn, Pahlmeyer, Patz and Hall, and Joseph Phelps. In 1997, Paul and Suzie Frank founded Gemstone Vineyards, raising the brand from debut to star in just over a decade. After selling Gemstone in 2008, the couple discovered a fairytale property in the Coombsville bench that felt like a perfect fit from the first time they stepped foot on the land. And so, Glass Slipper Vineyard was born with an intense focus on fine-tuning farming techniques of the five acres of vines. Like the Caldwells, Suzie and Paul produce a small lot of estate wines but sell much of their fruit to Napa’s most prestigious producers.

The wine is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, aged 81% new French oak for 19 months. The Dalecios produced just 250 cases. “This wine exhibits an invigorating freshness and savory aromatic lift and reveals a delightful blend of black and red fruits, black olive, and spearmint, all harmonizing beautifully on the palate. With crushed stone minerality and bright acidity, it is a full-bodied wine supported by super-fine tannins, making it a compelling candidate for long-term aging.” ~ Winemaker notes