2015 Red Wine

These four wines from Bob Levy and Martha McClellan turned out beautifully. Both wines are Cabernet Sauvignon-based blends. Ampersand, the second wine, is usually softened with a touch of Merlot, while the flagship Red Wine often includes dollops of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. Both wines emerge from a site in Calistoga owned by Martha McClellan's father, and are made with painstaking care that includes small lot fermentations directly in barrel. The 2014 and 2015 Red Wine are both terrific, especially within the context of their respective vintages.

My January visit to Bob Levy and Martha McClellan's Calistoga property was pretty sobering. Charred notes from the October fires still lingered in the air. The barn where I once tasted was totally gone. For now, it looks like only the perimeter of the vineyard was burned, but it will likely be some time before the long term effects of the fires is known. As for the wines, the bottled 2014s are very pretty but decidedly understated in style. In 2014, the differences between the two wines is quite wide, while in other vintages the wines have been more similar. The 2015s, which I tasted from bottle, were both a bit on the restrained, hushed side. It will be interesting to see if that is their true character, or if I caught the wines going through a slightly hushed period.