2013 Carl Roy Carl Roy Cabernet Sauvignon Diamond Mountain District Napa Valley 750 ml

2013:  A Perfect Script on Diamond Mountain

We first discovered the ultra-plush Carl Roy Cabernet Sauvignon at the top of the wine list at Restaurant Jean-Georges on Columbus Circle back in 2011. It wouldn’t be long before Carl Roy started popping up all over town, wine list features at the likes of Gramercy Tavern, Bar Boulud, and Del Frisco’s. Carl Roy was off to the races. Still, in the spring of 2014, 19 months before Robert Parker’s 2013 Napa Valley vintage report (“greatest vintage in 37 years”) ignited a record-breaking sales bonanza, Carl Roy found itself in the same situation as so many young brands, making way for one of the more compelling opportunities of the vintage.

Here’s why.

Nearly every young Napa Valley winery is faced with a common problem: Cash flow. It takes nearly 30 months to bring a harvest to market, and even if all goes well, another 6-9 months to deplete inventory. In the interim, grape contracts from two more vintages have been paid or will shortly come due. New $1,000 French barrels, each of which holds just 25 cases, are piled high in the winery. Then come the corks, bottles, capsules, and labels.

As a result, if young wineries become drunk on their early success and opt to grow too quickly, proprietors who haven’t cashed out in Silicon Valley IPOs or who weren’t born with 10-figure trust funds quickly feel the heat. Such was the case with Carl Roy, when we received that first email on April 16, 2014.

We cut this deal for the 2013 Carl Roy Cabernet Sauvignon Diamond Mountain less than two months later. Looking back, particularly now that every top-notch mountain Cabernet Sauvignon is fetching $75-$500, perhaps we negotiated too aggressively. In retrospect, maybe we squeezed too hard. But last time we checked, that’s what we’re paid to do.

The 2013 Carl Roy Cabernet Sauvignon Diamond Mountain District is drawn off a vertically trellised, high-density planting perched between 1,200 and 1,400 feet in elevation. If one had to blueprint a perfect growing season on Diamond Mountain, you’d be hard-pressed to write a better script than 2013.

This was the second year of what is now a five-year drought in California. But despite the arid conditions, Napa was spared the blistering heat spikes that punctuate most growing seasons. While younger vineyards suffered from hydric stress in late July and August, these deep-rooted, mature vines skated right through. Just 2.5 tons were harvested per acre, clusters strewn with berries no larger than the tip of your little finger. Sugars came in at 26 Brix, even as acids remained firm and tannins ripe and sumptuous. Finished pH was a Pauillac-like 3.7!

The 2013 Carl Roy Cabernet Sauvignon Diamond Mountain District is opaque purple in hue. Gorgeous aromas of mountain blueberry and blackberry liqueur, licorice, and underbrush, touched with new-wood cedar. Incredibly rich and pure on the attack, packed with crushed-black-fruit preserves, splashed with sweet crème de cassis, finishing with sturdy, palate-staining tannins. Drink now-2030.

Compared to $95. Still $28 this morning. The last 420 bottles are up for grabs…for the next 45 minutes or so.