AD VIVUM CABERNET SLV '15   

Ad Vivum Cabernet Sauvignon "Estate", Yountville, Napa Valley 2015

NVWE Notes: This stunning 2015 Cab delivers the beauty hoped for in a great year, while evading the awkwardness that can blunt wines of this vintage. The nose is a hint tight, yet is deep, elegant and packed with brightly focused pomegranate, sour red cherry, cranberry sauce, peppercorn, toasted grain, vanilla, sweet tobacco leaf and dried sage scents. It proves large-scale, but classy on the palate, where sour cherry, pomegranate and blueberry flavors dominate while finding harmony with sweet-savory undercurrents of tobacco, vanilla and dried herbs. The finish is ultra-long if not yet dramatic, and it will likely take three or four years for this wine's full loveliness to be revealed. 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, 175 cases made.

Antonio Galloni - Vinous / 96 Points

The 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon is outrageously beautiful. Dark, sumptuous and extravagantly rich, the 2015 possesses off the charts richness and intensity in every dimension. A rush of black cherry, mocha, lavender and violet build in this silky, plush, deeply expressive Cabernet Sauvignon. Today, the 2015 is a total pleasure bomb. While not inexpensive, the 2015 hits all the right spots. It is also arguably the reference-point wine from the Sleeping Lady vineyard. This is the first vintage in which Chris Phelps fermented some of his lots in barrel.