2017 Rivers-Marie Lore Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon | Oakville Napa Valley California 750ml

The 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon Lore Vineyard comes close to equaling the magical 2016 and has a stunning bouquet of cassis and black currants intermixed with lots of smoked tobacco, earth, and scorched earth. It's deep, powerful, full-bodied, and tannic, yet has loads of fruit and texture. It needs time, but it's a magical wine in the making. | 98 points, Jeb Dunnuck for jebdunnuck.com

The 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon Lore Vineyard [barrel sample] tastes like the 2016 did at this stage and appears to be another magical wine. One of the deepest, most layered and concentrated 2017s I was able to taste, it has classic Cabernet cassis and currant fruits, good complexity and minerality, full body, ripe tannins, and a great, great finish. This is the real deal and a thrilling wine that's going to check in near the top of the vintage. | 98-100 points, Jeb Dunnuck for jebdunnuck.com

Coming in at 2.25 tons off of two acres, there isn't much of this to go around. That fact plus the recent track record of this bottling leads us to expect the 2017 Lore to sell out faster than any Cabernet we have ever released. Of all the wines across all the projects, this might be the closest thing to its 2016 edition. Its brooding black-fruited minerality belies the vintage. There's a density and power here that could be confused with 2013. The yield without question contributed to this. The quality of farming here too has improved with healthier canopies allowing this vineyard to survive the afternoon sun it is routinely subjected to. Grab this while it lasts and know if you miss out, more is coming in 2018. 110 cases produced. | Rivers-Marie

Winemaker Thomas Rivers Brown has a history of high praise and huge scores with Napa Cabernet Sauvignon he has crafted for prestigious labels such as Schrader, Revana, Pulido-Walker, Maybach...and a stable of others. The wines for his own label Rivers-Marie are no exception. He selects fruit from the vineyard sites he sources with such a studious calculation that his winemaking efforts are focused on framing the raw material to simply show it in context. The Lore Vineyard, a 2 acre site on a steep incline at the western edge of Oakville gives tiny berries with a natural concentration and density for a wine with broad shoulders and a texture focuses on volume. We are definitely looking forward to future development as Thomas works with this site. | Falling Bright