2017 Color & Sound Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 750 ml

“Boisterous and spherical? That’s your tasting note?” 

“Yes,” was Alexis’ matter-of-fact response to the famous French winemaker. “It’s like a marching band, only if the players were marching with violins instead of trumpets and trombones,” Alexis explained, and continued, “It’s deep-water blue, and it just builds in the mouth like a monument rising out of the ground to a perfect point, only it’s supported by a base of wide, spherical melodies and has a kind of ‘Bordeaux-like’ austerity to it. Know what I mean?”

“Touché,” said the Frenchman. “You’ve read our reviews. ‘Bordeaux-like’ for Napa isn’t bad, right? But your description—that’s really incredible. I’d make wine for you if you described it like that.” 

(Drum Roll).  

We got the call on a Monday morning in late 2017 from the same French winemaker, a 100-point luminary and longtime Napa guru who was stunned by Alexis’s tasting note. He’d been at one of her dinner parties, and she managed to convince him that the extra barrels of one of his client’s still-aging Cabernet should go to us and be bottled as her newest Color & Sound Cabernet. After all, it’d been a surplus vintage in 2017 for the estate, and he’d been looking for the right home—would we be interested? 

Yes—we were interested. The winery, an under-the-radar heavyweight near Howell Mountain, is the recipient of over 45 Robert Parker ratings of 90-99 points, including 15 with scores of 95+ points. The wines are made in small quantities and have historically been the prized jewels of serious Napa collectors for their “Bordeaux-like” brilliance, with price tags starting at $150 and rising quite close to $300 a bottle. 

We took the afternoon off, sped up to a site just beyond Meadowood, and tasted the lots. The negotiations that ensued resulted in today’s follow-up to Alexis’ inaugural Cab: the 2017 Color & Sound is a firm, focused, and spicy Napa Cabernet with energy and drive, delivering refined layers of blackberry fruit, black currants, crushed graphite, cocoa nib, and savory herbs laced with crushed stone minerality—all for $30. On the heels of the 2016 release, which earned 21 perfect 5-star reviews (one fan wrote: “Excellent wine. It might have ruined us for anything else”), and 35 4-star reviews settling on 4 out 5 stars overall, this new release is poised to up the ante. 

Those familiar with Alexis—Color & Sound’s leading lady who possesses an experiential synesthetic sixth sense for tasting wine—know that this Grande Dame of Napa can leave people dumbfounded. Winemakers can’t get enough of her unforgettable descriptions of wine as shapes, colors, and sounds. Such was the case with the winery’s longtime consulting Frenchman who had called us up. 

The secret is out—we’re often the first call from blue-chip Napa wineries looking to sell some of their highly-prized grapes when their meticulously-farmed vineyards have been too fruitful in one growing season. In surplus vintages, not all Napa’s blue-chip wineries are keen to ramp up production. When those boutique winemakers meet Alexis, even “Bordeaux-like” brilliance from an under-the-radar legend is within reach. 

We can tell you that the source winery’s wines are impossibly opulent out the gate, and settle into an almost Bordeaux-like quality later in life, with savory tobacco spices, leather, and beautiful, sumptuous turned-earth and truffle notes. Much the same will become of the 2017 Color & Sound Napa Cabernet in a decade. But only a handful of you will be fortunate enough to find out. Only 50 cases before it’s all gone.