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Wine Recommendation
Nickel & Nickel
2003 Cabernet Sauvignon , Dragonfly Vineyard(St. Helena ~ Napa Valley)
Nickel & Nickel, owned by the same folks who brought us Far Niente and Dolce, specializes in single-vineyard designated wines. There are so many that an intrepid wine writer can barely keep up with the seemingly endless parcels N&N controls. Nonetheless, it’s a wine scribe’s dream to write about these wines – and a boon to you the consumer – that there are so many wines that posses some distinctive attributes.
Take for instance, this Cabernet from the four-acre Dragonfly Vineyard in the St. Helena appellation at the base of Spring Mountain. It’s in an area that old-timers refer to as the “banana belt,” because of its warm temperatures. The vineyard, in fact, is one of the first in N&N’s portfolio to be harvested each season.
The wine is sweet and perfumed in the nose and in the mouth it’s elegant with velvet-like smoothness. The bright red fruit comes from 16-year-old vines that were picked at a very reasonable 24.9 Brix (degree of sugar), which manifested in a palatable 14.32 percent alcohol.
The wine spent 17 months in French oak, 66 percent of which was once used. There were less than 850 cases produced.
Reviewed August 28, 2006 by Alan Goldfarb.
Other reviewed wines from Nickel & Nickel
The Wine
Winery: Nickel & Nickel |
The Reviewer
Alan Goldfarb
Alan Goldfarb has been writing about and reviewing wine for 17 years. His reviews have been published in the St. Helena Star, San Jose Mercury, San Francisco Examiner, Decanter, and Wine Enthusiast, among others. Not once has he used a point system, star system, or an iconic symbol to quantify a wine. What counts in Mr. Goldfarb’s criteria when judging a wine is: how it tastes in the glass; is it well-constructed; its food compatibility; and presence of redeeming regional attributes. |