2015 Carte Blanche Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 750 ml

100-Points With Best-in-Class Pricing

“Pure perfection in the glass,” is what Jeb Dunnuck calls the 100-point 2015 Carte Blanche Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley. This wine truly has nothing but strengths: It was crafted by 2012 Food & Wine magazine Winemaker of the Year Helen Keplinger under the auspices of proprietor Nicholas Allen, whose family’s wine business, Domaine Clarence Dillon owns the revered Bordeaux Châteaux Haut-Brion and La Mission Haut-Brion.

It consists of 100% Cabernet Sauvignon sourced primarily from Oakville’s Missouri Hopper Vineyard, farmed by Andy Beckstoffer. Aged for 22 months in 100 percent new French oak, Carte Blanche boasts “full-bodied richness, terrific concentration, and building tannin” says Dunnuck, who predicts a remarkable 20- or 30-year life for the wine.

Consider this: The Carte Blanche mailing list notwithstanding, our new allocation of 96 bottles is coming directly from Carte Blanche’s cool, dark cellar, in perfect condition and provenance.

Nicholas Allen could hardly have chosen a more apt name for his Napa Valley winery than Carte Blanche: The term means “complete freedom,” and the decisions that Allen has made at Carte Blanche answer to the questions: What would an ambitious Napa Valley producer do if he could hire any winemaker? Harvest any grapes? Purchase any barrels?  

Allen’s winemaker of choice is Helen Keplinger, the 2012 Food & Wine magazine Winemaker of the Year who has also graced the cover of Wine Spectator. Keplinger’s credentials are impeccable: Not only does she have her own lauded label of California Rhône wines, she currently makes wine for Grace Family Vineyards and previously worked for cult Cabernet icon Bryant Family for two years, and alongside Cabernet luminaries Heidi Peterson Barrett, David Abreu, and Michel Rolland.

Carte Blanche has applied Keplinger’s talent to raw materials that are also second-to-none: The Cabernet is grown mainly in the stony loam soils of Andy Beckstoffer’s Missouri Hopper Vineyard in Oakville. The rest of the fruit comes from the renowned Las Posadas Vineyard, which is tucked in among the pine and fir trees, above the fog line on Howell Mountain. Even the cooperage in which the wine rests for 22 months is hand-crafted by the peerless artisans at Darnajou, Taransaud, and Sylvain.

We know: Many Napa Cabernets are bottled by proprietors of impressive resources. But very few deliver on the promise of their pedigree, their world-class winemaker, and their coveted fruit. In Napa Valley, where producers collect congratulations just for producing a 100% Napa Valley Cabernet for less than three digits, Carte Blanche has managed to do something truly remarkable: Exceeded near-impossible expectations by achieving a perfect wine.

Inky purple, with a ton of dark fruit, tobacco, savory herbs, broad shoulders, and a long, lingering finish, this is a spectacular wine. 100-point Napa Valley Cabernets are rare. 100-point Napa Valley Cabernets at this price are not to be missed. Do not pass it by.