2000 Profile
Varietals
56% Cabernet Sauvignon
40% Merlot
3% Cabernet Franc
1% Petit Verdot
Appellation
Napa Valley
Alcohol
14.5% by volume
Flavor Profile
2000 was a relatively cool, late-ripening year, creating particularly good conditions for Merlot. As a result, we had plenty of excellent Merlot to work with and the 2000 Profile blend has a little more Merlot in it than other years. The Cabernet came from Oakville, Rutherford and St. Helena and was loaded with the rich flavors and dense, supple texture I look for. The wine was fermented with native yeasts, aged in mostly new French oak chateau ferre barrels and was bottled unfiltered. It is opulently structured and very dark.
- Vineyard Notes
Profile Estate Vineyard, Beckstoffer-Georges III, VI, ToKalon and Las Amigas Vineyards, Showket and Oak Creek Vineyards.
- From Connoisseurs' Guide to California Wine: "The shining star of the Merryvale clan in 2000...
…the Profile bottling is big, bold, deeply constituted wine that married lots of concentrated, black currant qualities with a most generous dose of lovely oak. Redolent of sweet cream, coffee, cocoa and caramel, it is kept solidly on course by its unwavering fruit, and, if admittedly a little tough and tannic just now, it is no more so than a very young Cabernet might be expected to be, and its prospects for five to seven years of improvement are all, but guaranteed.” —Charles Olken & Stephen Eliot [92 POINTS & TWO PUFFS]
- From Wine & Spirits: "Cabernet sauvignon flavors dominate this heady and stylish red...
… even though it accounts for just over half of the blend with merlot (40 percent), cabernet franc (3) and petit verdot (1). It gives a dry expression of Napa, dark in tone, black as a starry night sky. Though powerful in its tannic richness, the wine is stepped back from aggressive, more austere than in your face. This should age beautifully.” —Joshua Greene [90 POINTS]