Nose
It smells like blackberry vines loaded with ripe berries along a hot dusty gravel road (a smell that takes me back to my childhood summers in the Oregon coast range).
Palate
The ripe fruit is balanced with sweet vanilla and spice notes from wood, and because of the long time spent in barrel, the tannins are seamless and soft. Everything about this wine evokes warmth and ripeness.
Growing Conditions
You may have heard how ‘disastrous’, or ‘hopelessly under-ripe’ the 2011 vintage was from the press, but I can assure you that 2011 produced some of the finest wines ever at Kuleto Estate. Because of our altitude, quick-drying soils, and daily breezes, we never have trouble ripening fruit even in challenging years. Our 2011s are loaded with varietal character, perfectly balanced with acid and alcohol, and much more expressive that their warmer vintage counterparts. There are among my favorite wines ever made at Kuleto. Wine lots and barrels selected for ‘The Point” Cabernet Sauvignon don’t necessarily come from a particular spot on the estate (à la Vineyard Designate), but rather share common flavor and structural attributes that highlight explosive fruit, spicy wood, and mouth-filling tannins. Most of you have visited the winery and taken the walk out to look over the Napa Valley from our promontory. The heady aromatics and sun-drenched fruit flavors of “The Point” are inspired by this lofty view.
Winemaker Notes
The 2011 “The Point” Cabernet projects surprisingly ripe aromas and flavors considering the vintage, once again illustrating how different the Kuleto Estate is from most of the Napa Valley.
Aging
26 months in 30% new French oak and 5% new Virginia oak; only one racking
