2010 Arietta Variation One Red Wine Napa Valley 750 ml

This is one of the wines we pour for our most avid collector friends, whether they love Bordeaux, the Rhône Valley, or California Cabernet. It’s also one we open for pure pleasure—and a ton of top Napa Valley winemakers we know do the same. 

In fact, our own Master of Wine Vanessa Conlin hand-picked these bottles exclusively for Wine Access members. “2010 is one of my favorite Napa Valley vintages,” she explained. “The season was exquisite—and you can really taste it in Arietta’s spicy, herbal nuances. I never want to put this glass down.” 

Variation One, which co-ferments Syrah and Merlot in nearly equal proportions, cascades from the glass with savory aromas of leather, tobacco, cedar, dried violets, and balsam built around a core of baked and fresh plums, blackberry, smoke, and a hint of cracked pepper. The softened, velvety tannins are supremely enjoyable on the palate, and while you could continue to cellar this beauty for another decade it’s drinking in its prime today… after 10 years under vintners Fritz and Caren Hatton’s watchful eyes.

Arietta is awash in some of the top talent and grapes in California. Their winemaker is the renowned multi-100-point Andy Erickson (of Screaming Eagle, Dalla Valle, and Harlan Estate), and the grapes for Variation One come from the Carneros’ lauded Hudson vineyard, where red grapes thrive under foggy skies. The source, pedigree, and care in this bottle—not to mention the perfect 10-year cellar regime—all add up to a red that belongs alongside the cult Cabernets and Bordeaux Grands Crus, at a price that puts most of those wines to shame. 

Robert Parker himself called this wine a “another animal altogether,”  and we’re proud to say it’s still a bombshell—and completely unique—today. Erickson’s blending mastery is on full display in this wine, whose savory and floral tones harmonize with symphonic grace and elegance. After fermentation, Variation One was aged in new French oak for 22 months, which added the structure and spice notes that make it sing today. The Syrah brings a wilder sense to the classic Merlot, allowing the wine to achieve great complexity and ageability.

The result is one of the most special and cellar-worthy wines made in Napa Valley, aged to perfection for you.