2010 Estate Cuvee State Lane Vineyard Yountville

I had another Petrus moment at Kapcsandy this year: the winery's stunning 2010 Roberta's Reserve is about as good as merlot gets, including on the Pomerol plateau.(And it's clear that Lou Kapcsandy is gunning for Petrus.)The wine has structure of steel plus uncanny depth and complexity, and may well have an aging curve like a great Pomerol from a great vintage.The estate was extremely severe with its selection in 2010, as fully two-thirds of its total production went into its entry-level Endre blend.Kapcsandy told me that the 2011 growing season brought a trifecta of lower alcohol, ripe fruit and buoyant acidity."The raw materials were a bit riper and fruitier, and the berries were slightly larger, with bigger seeds and slightly thinner skins," said Louis Jr."We had to let the cabernet sauvignon hang, and we ended up making more passes through the vines than they do at Chateau Yquem."

The key to the quality of the Kapcsandys' outstanding vineyard on the Yountville Crossroad (formerly the State Lane Vineyard, the source of many outstanding cabernets from Beringer over the years) may be the long hangtime between veraison and harvest. Particularly in recent cooler years, the tannins are able to ripen slowly and thoroughly before grape sugars go too high (most of the 2010s and 2009s are under 14% alcohol, according to Lou Kapcsandy). The soil is mostly gravel over clay, and cooling breezes from San Pablo Bay to the south consistently bring down temperatures in late afternoon. The vines are also planted along a north-south axis, which protects the grapes from the hottest afternoon sun. The result is more hang time, less dehydration of the grapes, and dense, full wines with strong minerality and floral lift. During my most recent tasting here, it crossed my mind that the Roberta's Reserve bottling has quickly risen to the top of the merlot heap in California. But don't expect a chocolatey, oaky confection; in its intensity, structure and mineral grip, it's more like Petrus.