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Neal Family Vineyards Fifteen-Forty
Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 2005
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Cabernet Sauvignon
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PRICE:
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6 x 750 ml
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5 cases
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The Fifteen-Forty hails from one of the steepest vineyards in all of the Neal family holdings. Located at 420 meters the vineyard sits just outside of the Howell Mountain AVA. The soils here are a gravelly loam and the wine clearly reflects its origins. This is classic mountain Cabernet: dense and structured, but with loads of silky black fruit.
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Mark Neal
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Neal Family cab is a Liquid Art classic for many reasons. It is a top quality Napa cab with an impeccable pedigree produced by one of the valley's great winegrowing families, but because the family is not predisposed to pandering to journalists, it tends to be un-reviewed, and therefore has no place in the pantheon of point scores.
What we have here then is a wine lover's dream come true: an almost totally under-the-radar wine full of character and class that massively over-delivers price-wise. Please DO NOT tell your friends - there will be more for us!
Winegrowers in Napa since 1968, the Neal family farm an astonishing 2,000 acres, from Coombsville to Calistoga. Since 2001 Mark Neal has used his family's deep cumulative knowledge of Napa terroir to select superior vineyard sites in Howell Mountain, Rutherford, Mount Veeder, Coombsville, Atlas Peak, and St. Helena that he believes best express the true character of the Napa Valley.
Meticulous organic farming produces cabernet grapes with great purity of flavour. The Neal winemaking style emphasizes balance, integration, and elegance rather than power, evoking the classic wines of Napa's golden era. The Fifteen-Forty is a classic example of Napa's mountain fruit. It is dense, but impeccably balanced with bright acidity and gravelly minerality. The 2005 is the current release of the single vineyard Fifteen-Forty. Where else can you get nearly 10 year old Napa cabernet as a current release?
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Also Available
Neal Family Vineyards Napa Cabernet 2008 12 x 750 ml $60.00/bottle
The 2008 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon features 84% of the grapes coming from the Howell Mountain, Second Chance and One Lane Bridge vineyards. This is the highest percentage of mountain fruit in the Napa Cabernet bottled to date. It is a big muscular Napa Cabernet with firm tannins featuring dark fruit and chocolate aromas mingled with the blackberry/cherry fruit. Another layer of flavors brings a mix of tobacco and cured olives with hints of spice, sage and tea. The mouth-feel is very rich with generous mountain tannins that have evolved into a velvety texture creating a long, delicious finish. The 2008 will benefit from some bottle aging if you can resist popping the cork.
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