La Rusticana d’Orsa, Santa Cruz Mountains (California) 2012

I often find that singular focus can lead to great results in the world of wine, and here’s a nice example of that. La Rusticana d’Orsa focuses all of their efforts on this Bordeaux styled blend and delivers their best vintage yet with this 2012 bottling.  It’s full bodied, yet restrained and elegant, showing blackberry, currants, vanilla, cigar box and a dash of baker’s chocolate in both aroma and flavor, with well balanced acidity, supple mountain tannins and a long, well integrated finish.  Well done!  Contains 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Franc, 2.5% Petit Verdot and 2.5% Malbec.  A Platinum Award winner at the 2015 San Diego International Wine Competition.