2012 Anderson's Conn Valley Vineyards Right Bank Napa Valley 750 ml

2012 Anderson’s Conn Valley “Right Bank” — Parker’s “Cheval Blanc Look-Alike”

In July 2012, we trekked the manicured rows above St. Helena, where Conn Creek flows off of Howell Mountain. We’ve visited Napa Valley every summer since the early 1990s, but we had never seen so many perfectly formed clusters. It was as if Walt Disney had sprinkled pixie dust over the St. Helena foothills. If the weather held up, the 2012 harvest was shaping up to be monumental.

Nature never missed a beat. From mid-July to the October harvest date — save for a brief period of refreshing rain in September — Napa Valley enjoyed turquoise-sky days and cool nights. Harvest at Anderson’s Conn Valley was a “cake walk.” The Andersons echoed what we heard up and down the Silverado Trail: If there was ever a Napa Valley harvest where growers “could do without a sorting table,” 2012 was it.

Fueled by The Wine Advocate’s report in Issue #215, where Robert Parker raved about the “flamboyance” of Napa’s 2012 reds, prices that had held steady for almost three years spiked. Screaming Eagle, which earned a perfect 100 points from “The King,” topped out at $3,000/bottle (almost three times the price of Pauillac’s 100-point Château Latour). It didn’t matter. Silicon Valley billionaires went into a feeding frenzy. Every bottle of Harlan Estate, Bond, Screaming Eagle, Colgin, and Bryant Family was allocated well before release day.

Now, as the curtain closes on the 2012 vintage, bargain hunters — once convinced that prices would fall given the copious size of the harvest — have been left out in the cold. Nearly every 92-point bottle, if you can find one, will set you back $75-$200.

Except this one.

Robert Parker’s top-scoring, drop-dead bargain of the 2012 vintage? It was a walk-off. Drawn off the Anderson family’s property above St. Helena, just south of Howell Mountain, the 2012 “Right Bank” ranks among the finest vintages ever to come off this historic vineyard. Parker called “Right Bank” a “Cheval Blanc look-alike.” Spend a few hours with this 2012 and a Zalto Bordeaux stem and you’ll understand why.

Opaque purple to the edge, infused with voluptuous aromas of crushed black fruits, plum, mocha, and black cherry. Explosive on the attack, packed with ultra-concentrated black- and red-fruit preserves, graphite, and lavender, doused with sweet crème de cassis, finishing — as always with “Right Bank” — with superb backbone and grip.

94 points from The Wine Advocate. 93-95 points from Parker’s protégé, Antonio Galloni. Just $49 on WineAccess this morning. Last call. 108 bottles are up for grabs.