Brion, Coombsville – Napa Valley (California) Cabernet Sauvignon 2019

 This wine shows what it means to be an iconic Napa Valley Cabernet – rich, luxurious blackberry flavors, an edge but not a taste of Cab’s greenbrier varietal heritage, walnutty tannins, barrel whispers and a very lean but fruit-infused finish.  The next day it is even more generous, but certainly not fading away.  Coombsville, late to be discovered, provides some of the Valley’s best Cabernet fruit, and the Caldwell Vineyard sourcing provides an interesting story to be told while sipping the wine.  Rambunctious John Caldwell loves to relate how he smuggled the vines in across the Canadian border – and got caught doing it but gave the Feds another set of vines – and presumably these grapes come from those illegal vines or their descendants.