2016 Promontory Napa Valley Bordeaux Blend

“The 2016 Estate is pure perfection and a legend in the making. Featuring incredible purity of fruit as well as powerful notes of crème de cassis, gravelly earth, cedar pencil, and chocolate, it has the fresher, pure, classic style of this great vintage front and center. With full-bodied richness and depth, it has an almost Château Latour-like stature and majestic quality, and it should have a similar evolution, requiring 7-8 years to hit its early drink window yet evolve for 20-30 years or more.” (01/2021)

“I tasted this for the first time last year and it has only got greater. The nose is breathtaking. Purity with incredible complexity, showing dried mushrooms, blackberries, currants and cedar. Some wet earth. Dense and layered blackberries and blueberries. Full-bodied and long with beautiful depth and intensity. The tannins are ultra long. Black truffle comes through. Love the length, finesse and focus.” (01/2020)

“Deep garnet-purple, the 2016 Promontory comes barreling out of the glass with bold scents of black cherries, blueberry pie and licorice, leading to a slowly emerging core of crème de cassis, dark chocolate, black soil and truffles plus touches of cumin seed, mossy bark and beef drippings. The full-bodied palate is densely packed with muscular fruit, backed by a rock-solid structure of very firm, exquisitely ripe, grainy tannins and fantastic tension. The finish is both powerful and beautifully nuanced, hedonic and cerebrally gratifying. This singularly stunning expression of Napa Valley is to be released by the winery in 2021. (LPB)” (01/2021)

“Deep purple-black colored, the nose of the 2016 Promontory starts a little sluggish and broody before positively erupting with powerful scents of plum preserves and crème de cassis, followed by exotic hints of cardamom, Indian spices, and sandalwood, plus wafts of fertile loam and crushed rocks. The palate is full-bodied, rich, and velvety, intertwining opulence and minerality with wonderful vibrancy and gravitas, finishing with an epically long-lasting array of earthy sparks. Now starting to shut down as it heads into a slumber, give it a good 4-5 more years in the cellar before broaching, then drink it over the next 30+ years. (LPB)” (03/2022)

“The 2016 Promontory is every bit as magnificent as it has always been. A wine of dimension and breadth, the 2016 is so captivating in the way it engages all the senses. Unlike many Napa Valley Cabernets, Promontory, especially in structured years like 2016, really benefits from aeration. That time brings out striking floral and mineral nuance while releasing the fruit as the tannins gently melt. Hints of sage, lavender, graphite and mint lend brilliance to this beautifully sculpted, taut Cabernet Sauvignon. What a wine. (AG)” (10/2021)

“Beautiful vivid purple colour in the glass. Softly perfumed blackcurrants with milk chocolate - smells so welcoming and appealing. This is excellent from the start - you have an intensity of flavour, the richness, the depth - with a really dark, spicy undertone but these plush tannis that are soft, softly chewy and delicate yet fill the mouth. You can feel the winemaking on show with the impression this has been well handled and worked so carefully to get such harmonious tannins and at the same time an overall excellent expression of fruit. It's a full wine but really refined - still structured and expansive and still with so much life to give. I love the feeling you get tasting this wine, it's hefty no doubt, powerful but encased so well that you just get everything on full blast that you want to sit and slowly think about. A contemplative wine but one for total enjoyment. (GH)” (02/2022)

“This has the kick of black pepper, green pepper, mint leaf and eucaplyptus that takes you slap bang into Cabernet Sauvignon territory. As things limber up on the palate, everything is held in place by structured, slate-textured tannins that keep you pinned you in the heart of the wine. Plump blueberry and raspberry fruits, grilled almond, cloves and gunsmoke, with fresh sage notes that place you with a vineyard planted at altitude. The vines range in age from 7 to 50 years old, covering 32ha, with the wine aged in large-sized oak casks for three years, extremely unusual in Napa, and then typically held back for a further year in bottle before release. Promontory is all about precision, ageing-ability and carefully-hewn tannins, and this is great stuff from winemaker David Cilli and director Will Harlan.” (02/2022)

“Shows solid structure and a slightly reticent, dark fruit profile, with currant, fig and blackberry notes allied to a graphite edge, while tobacco and melted black licorice fill in through the finish. This offers sneaky depth and is still in need of some cellaring. (JM)” (04/2022)

“Sophisticated nose and great lift and life. Lots of extract and dry appetising tannins. Good energy. 18.5/20 points (JR)” (02/2020)