Carter 2022 Cabernet Sauvignon OG   

2022 Carter Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon “The O.G”, Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard, Oakville, Napa Valley
San Francisco Wine Panel 98+ Points
The OG Block (planted to clone 337) made Carter’s reputation, both for its intrinsic quality and age-ability, and that impending greatness is fully expressed in the marvelous 2022. The nose is packed with dark sour cherry, lingonberry jam, black raspberry, peppercorn, sweet tobacco, mincemeat, crushed dark rose, coffee toffee and canola scents. It proves as muscular as expected on the palate, where a brooding mineral strain and a suggestion of licorice root uplift and help focus a deeper core of dark cherry, cranberry sauce and dark berry fruit in counterpoint to the wine’s firming tannins and dramatic textural weight. The finish is enormously rich, super-long, gripping and altogether dramatic in scale, with a core of cherry as centerpiece. If a satisfying accompaniment to grilled meats right now, it is certainly at least 6-7 years from full expression and will be a notable candidate should one need a “birth year” wine.