Gallica’s flagship is farmed organically in Oakville at 800 to 1,400 feet. The blend is three-quarters Cabernet Sauvignon with Cabernet Franc, and the wine spent 20 months in French oak.
Sounds simple enough, maybe, but the results are an enchanting commingling of elements: power and finesse, depth and levity, green and red and black and blue. The fragrance reads like fresh air tinted scarlet, with juniper and juniper berries, black fruits, pine and cedar needles, cinnamon. Polished tannins form a smooth surface for a sheen of black fruits and, below, a glittery vein of graphite.
Promising, complicated, but too youthful, it needs a decade in bottle to become what it can become. If you really must open it, expect beauty not yet unearthly.
14.5% abv | $160 (sample)
That sounds incredibly appealing, regardless of the price.
It would be interesting to taste the vintage over the next five to ten years. Or taste from their library, of course.
Go figure, Gallica wines show up on sale at Grape Collective.
The publicists are out in force.