2016 Frediani Vineyard Grenache - T-Vine Winery

Cranberry compote, crushed anise, bruised strawberry. Wild Huckleberry, lacquered wood, maraschino cherry. White pepper and herbal spice, thorny bramble and spearmint. Juicy, sappy, and wild berry fruit spills red currant and blueberry bush with dense yet crunchy purity. Lilac and hydrangeas chime in with subtle floral sweetness before briar, wet concrete, and dry loamy earth pull things back towards the untamed. Licorice and clove leave their mark on the finish as powdery tannin and balancing acidity bring this medium plus bodied wine through its paces. Showing great complexity with lean power and depth of flavor indicative of its Napa origins. This 2016 Frediani Vineyard Grenache by T-Vine Winery is an interesting and delicious Rhone red from Calistoga.

While Cabernet Sauvignon and its Bordeaux brethren currently dominate the vineyard plantings in Napa Valley there are pockets of other varieties grown all over that are quietly producing fantastic wine. This bottling, crafted by T-Vine Winery using Grenache sourced from the Frediani Vineyard in Calistoga, is a wonderful example of Napa Valley's ability to grow just about anything successfully. This wine possesses typical Napa power and concentration expressed through ripe medicinal red fruit that is complicated wonderfully by Grenache's natural spiced and feral side. It exhibits fantastic typicity in a well balanced frame and can thankfully be enjoyed for a fraction of the price compared to most of the valley's single vineyard Cabernet. This is simply a tasty bottle of wine.