2021 Orin Swift Mercury Head Cabernet Sauvignon

Winemaker, creative director and founder Dave Phinney says of Mercury Head, "It's the easiest, shortest story—it's just the best [expletive] Cabernet we think we can make in Napa Valley." With fruit derived from several sources, including the Taplin-Lewelling Vineyard across Highway 29 from the Louis Martini winery, the 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Mercury Head is gently herbal, with those elements adding complexity to the cassis and black cherry fruit, plus there's a hint of dark chocolate as well. Full-bodied, rich and concentrated, this ripe, fruit-driven wine finishes velvety and long.

100% Cabernet Sauvignon aged in 13 months, 58% New French Oak. Expressive sweet and savoury coconut, dill, and Kirsch aromas with toasty oak, vanillin and mocha. A towering red that enmeshes itself on the palate with a blanket of fine-grained tannins that resolve with a burly texture before clearing the way for more of the same flavours on the palate, joined by spiced rum cake and rum-soaked raisins. The ripe, sweet fruit is granted an aromatic lift from a good amount of glycerol, which remains cool and balanced through the finish of earth, wet river stones and dried herbs.