2021 Dana Estates ‘Hershey Vineyard’ Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley

WA99 The 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Hershey Vineyard—from a site on Howell Mountain—displays a wonderfully complex bouquet highlighted by floral and piney accents to the black cherries, cassis and plums that cascade forth. Despite all that dark fruit—and aging in 100% new French oak—there’s no sense of over-ripeness, just immaculately firm fruit framed by ripe, dusty tannins and a lingering, elegant finish. There is always a certain amount of hemming and hawing that goes into assigning a score like this, but ultimately I would rather be “stingy” than have readers disappointed if the wine doesn’t reach their lofty expectations of what a triple-digit score signifies.
JD97-99 Moving to the barrel samples, the 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Hershey Vineyard sports a deeper plum hue as well as a black fruited, powerful, concentrated style in its darker currants, chocolate, iron, black olive, and tobacco. It’s rich, powerful, and concentrated, with remarkable purity as well as plenty of ripe, building tannins. It s one of the broader and more expansive wines in the lineup in 2021.