Tasting Notes:
95+ points Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate
From a small vineyard next to Scarecrow that used to regularly appear in BV’s Georges de Latour bottling, Mending Wall’s 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Godward Vineyard boasts oodles of ripe red and black cherries on the nose, nicely complemented by hints of cedar and dusty earth. It’s medium to full-bodied and silky textured on the palate, then finishes long. Showing immense balance and elegance allied to concentrated, ripe fruit, it’s a lovely wine that should evolve and drink well for up to 20 years.
Cult Wines International Notes:
Mending Wall is the work of three families — Frank Dotzler, Mark Pulido and Donna Walker, and Thomas Rivers Brown — built around fruit from small, family-owned Napa vineyards. Brown is among the most decorated winemakers in California, the youngest ever to earn a perfect 100-point score, and the hand behind Schrader, Outpost and Rivers-Marie. The name comes from Robert Frost, and the idea behind the label is the opposite of the poem’s wary neighbours: partnership between growers and winemaker rather than division.
Godward is one of Napa’s genuinely hidden sites. A 6.5-acre parcel on the western side of Rutherford, sitting between Staglin and Scarecrow, its fruit went for years into Beaulieu’s old Georges de Latour Private Reserve without ever appearing on a label. Wine Spectator searched a database of more than 450,000 reviews and found only one other wine that has ever carried the Godward name. Gary Morisoli, who farmed Bosché and Hewitt among more than 300 acres in Rutherford, replanted the entire block to Clone 4 Cabernet in 2002.
The 2021 shows heady blue fruit, violet, crème de cassis, kirsch, vanilla and toasty oak, with chocolate, loamy earth and baking spice beneath. Medium- to full-bodied, round, elegant and seamless, with ample minerality and fine-grained tannins that are present and building, and exacting mineral tension through the finish. Plenty of up-front charm, but this will reward a few years of patience and should evolve gracefully for decades.
Bottle Size:
750 mL
Storage History:
Always stored properly in a climate-controlled cellar.
Condition:
Perfect
