I love a wine with a great backstory, and this one is a beauty. Back in 1986, Jason Court, owner / winemaker of Evidence Wines was just out of college, living in Chicago. To pay the bills he got gig bartending where he met a guy by the name of Chris Carpenter. They became fast friends, and kept in touch over the years as life pulled them in various directions. Jason made his way in to TV and movie production and was living and working in LA. Chris Carpenter (as many of you probably figured out) became one of the most celebrated winemakers of a generation in Napa Valley. Chris makes the wines at Lokoya, Cardinale, La Jota, Mount Brave and others. His prowess with mountain-grown Napa Cabernet is quite frankly second to none. In the early 2000s a wave of strikes in the entertainment business left Jason out of work and with time to burn. He connected with Chris and arranged to head up to Napa and work harvest for a few weeks while the ongoing labor disputes got settled. 23 years later, Jason is still in Napa, working alongside Chris at Cardinale! He's learned a great deal from his longtime friend and mentor and gotten his hands on some pretty darn exceptional grapes, too! In 2016 after 20+ years of working in the cellar, with encouragement from Chris Carpenter, Jason decided to buy a few tons of fruit and create his own personal label. The Evidence wines are tiny production, made at Cardinale winery, and made from the best grapes money can buy in Napa. The 2021 Evidence "Bruadair Vineyard" Mt Veeder Cab shows exactly well Jason learned his craft from Chris. This is a massive, monumental Cabernet with huge concentrated fruit, structure, extract and a firm core of classic Veeder rocky minerality. The dense, muscular black and blue fruit is enveloped in luxurious oak with rich spices and dark cocoa tones. Creme de cassis, blackberry puree, damson jam, charred oak notes, crushed rock, graphite, leather and spice box. This wine has formidable structure is isn't for the faint of heart. A true "steakhouse wine". Have with a wood grilled tomahawk steak or braised shorts ribs. If you're drinking it anytime in the next 5 years, an hours decant will serve you well.

Hello Mr. Inky! As I swirl this in my glass, it keeps painting the sides pink over and over again. This is absolutely going to be another big Napa Cabernet, my future is preordained. Lots of dark fruit, brambley and dusty with a lot of cedary oak behind it, the fruit is definitely a combination of dried and fresh with maybe a little hint of something stewed in the far back. The palate is fat and rich, but there's really a nice line of acidity pushing through the whole thing and a really nice tannin structure that's just a touch coarse right now, but has all the promise of something that will soften and integrate fully as it lays down. I'm super impressed, because while there's a lot of fruit there's so much structure that this feels very age-worthy to me. This is really fantastica and more than just another big dumb Napa wine, this is a 350lb linebacker who listens to cello during his workouts and reads Edwardian-era mystery books with a female lead detective while he's snuggled up with his six cats.