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Member Reviews:
 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon Elodian Napa Valley
Combines the smooth with depth of flavor. This has been one of my all time favorites even compared to many of the really aged wines I have tasted. It has body, depth, finish... just plain goooood wine!
-- Sandra from Hereford, TX
2006 Cabernet Sauvignon Elodian Napa Valley
What joy for everyday drinking. Tom Eddy rocked with this one. It is such a solid wine to pop open and drink every day if you want. I call this wine my "sleeper." Every time I serve it people always ask me where it came from and how can they get some. Glad this falls under the radar, my secret.
-- Tony from Brooklyn, NY
2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Elodian Napa Valley
This wine has a wonderful mouth feel. Very well balanced that is both food friendly and can stand by itself. It went well with some aged white cheddar. I'm glad I picked up a case!
-- Joe from Bates City, MO
 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Elodian Napa Valley
A solid Cali red that delivers the goods. The wine has good fruit on the attack and is balanced through the mid-palate. It isn't overly tannic, yet has good backbone. And at this price point, it can't be beat! Drink early and often.
-- Kyle from Malvern, PA
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Blackberry Preserves on Pritchard Hill
In 2010, Napa winemaking icon Tom Eddy treated WineAccess to two offers of his lavish Elodian Cabernet Sauvignons. In back-to-back vintages, Eddy stunned bargain hunters, garnering 75 perfect 5-star ratings in one of the great performances of the crisis years. Given those wines' origins, it came as little surprise. One part Stagecoach Vineyard up on Atlas Peak (the brawn and the muscle), the other Meteor Vineyard in Coombsville (the chiseled richness), those Elodian Cabernets offered up the rarest marriage of blackberry opulence and sculpted elegance.
But when we next saw Tom, at the Nantucket Wine Festival in May, he shocked us with this knockout 2008. Sure, the broad shoulders of Stagecoach were still pumping iron. And yes, Meteor piled on with its requisite blackberry preserves. But here, the texture was far denser -- almost chewy -- cloaked in velour, silken and weighty. And while the '07 and '06 were indeed rich, neither held a candle to the crème-de-cassis lavishness found at the core of the 2008. When we finally looked up from our glasses, Tom's smile spread ear to ear. That's when he explained why the 2008 trumps every Elodian Cabernet Sauvignon he's ever made -- and of the improbable story of Spanos-Berberian.
In 1996, Eddy received a call from Ron Berberian, a friend from way back in the early days of the Napa Valley renaissance. Berberian wanted to purchase a blue chip property on which to plant Cabernet Sauvignon and had the resources to do so. But just for good measure, and to make certain that no stone would be left unturned, he'd partnered up with Alex Spanos, the owner of the San Diego Chargers. Even To-Kalon seemed cheap when you're used to paying Philip Rivers.
For almost three years, Eddy scoured the rocky soils of Oakville and St. Helena. He had brokers dialing for dollars on Mt. Veeder, Howell and Diamond Mountain. But it wouldn't be until 1999 that Eddy finally hit pay dirt. Forty acres set on an impossible 30% grade, high up on Pritchard Hill, had just hit the market. Colgin was next door. Ovid, David Arthur and Chappellet just a stone's throw away. The asking price was high. But neither Berberian nor Spanos blinked.
"But just a few months before closing," Tom told us at the festival, "we were thrown a curveball. Someone at the Sierra Club decided there was an endangered flax plant species on the property. If that was the case, I sure couldn't find it. But this was California, 1999. Ron and Alex bought the property all right. But not before they agreed to sacrifice seven of the forty acres to flax!"
Just 20 acres were planted, meticulously divided into 25 distinct blocks. There would be five Bordeaux varieties, a myriad of clones. Almost immediately, both Colgin and Chappellet contracted for fruit. By agreement, Tom Eddy got three of those 25 blocks, about 2.5 acres of "the most exquisite Cabernet clusters I've seen in 30 years in the valley!"
"2008 was a tiny harvest. Yields were down almost 30%. Small berries. Historic concentration. I made a tiny bit of single vineyard Spanos-Berberian Reserve. Less than 200 cases. Sold it all to the mailing list. But when I went to blend the Elodian, the Stagecoach was just a monster. Wildly brawny. The Meteor was great, as always, but I just needed a bit more plushness in the middle. So I added a little Spanos-Berberian. Just 2%. Then five. Then I just couldn't help myself -- and pushed the needle."
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Tasting Notes
2008 Tom Eddy Cabernet Sauvignon Elodian Napa Valley
"Deep purple color. Explosive aromas of blackberries and ripe cassis, trimmed with new wood cedar. Rich and powerful on the attack with gobs of blackberry preserves, laced with crème-de-cassis. At once big shouldered and brawny (Stagecoach Vineyard), beautifully sculpted (Meteor), all wrapped around a fabulously dense core of black fruit confiture (Spanos-Berberian), velour-like in texture, still bracketed by fine tannins, lurking in the backdrop. Drink now for the primary fruit pizzazz or age for 4-5 years when all the blue chip vineyard pedigree will really begin to strut its stuff."
-- Tasting Notes from the Nantucket Wine Festival
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