Pym-Rae * 2019 Wine (75cl)

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This climatic balance combined with the altitude of the vineyard allowed Pym-Rae to produce vibrant and expressive wines, preserving freshness and finesse to the fruit. The tannins are silky, the fruit exceptional and the texture ample, signs of a great vintage.The unique wood packaging includes an illustration of the sky over Pym-Rae on the first day of the vintage's harvest.Blend: 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Cabernet Franc, 5% MerlotWood case ships separately. The 2019 Château Pym-Rae is a textbook Mount Veeder Cabernet with its exotic red, blue, and black fruits as well as complex notes of mountain scrub brush, lavender, tobacco, and lead pencil. Hitting the palate with full-bodied richness, it has a layered, elegant mouthfeel, ultra-fine yet substantial tannins, and a great finish. It's one of those "iron fist in a velvet glove" type wines that will benefit from 2-4 years of bottle age and shine over the following two decades. The Pym-Rae wines I tasted with Alfred Tesseron and Estate Manager Jérôme Ledit (2016-2019) all possess some measure of intensity, elegance, excellent balance, and freshness. Encompassing all those qualities is this 2019 vintage, seamless and simply mind-boggling. Pure blackberry fruit, creme de cassis, and graphite are nuanced by garrigue and cocoa nibs laced with orange essence. Medium to full-bodied with youthful blue fruit, spiced plum, and violets that meld together, creating a profoundly symphonic and lyrical fruit melody that is impossible to resist. The vines are surrounded by a pristine wilderness and many native California shrubs; those qualities emerge in the wine as sagebrush, fragrant Bay Laurel, and layers of ironstone mineral and earth. A kind of soy-soaked cedarwood rounds out this meticulous wine. The Tesseron family, owners of Château Pontet-Canet, purchased the estate in 2016. It was owned by the late actor Robin Williams, who had planted the vines in the late 1990s. Jérôme Ledit is the Estate Manager and Michel Rolland