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2009 Amuse Bouche Napa Valley Red Blend

Amuse Bouche

2009 Amuse Bouche Napa Valley Red Blend

The Wine

With the 2009 vintage, we celebrate our eighth offering of Amuse Bouche - and our growing conviction that we have one of the best jobs in the world! We get to farm our vineyards, make our wine and share what we produce with a select group of folks who enjoy life as much as we do. We spare no expense to support our passion for quality. And we aren't hawking another Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon! The 2009 Amuse Bouche artwork created for us by Hunt Slonem exemplifies the joy and good fortune that fill our lives.

Our 2009 Amuse Bouche Pomerol blend of Merlot (96%) and Cabernet Franc (4%) was picked in two blocks on October 3 and October 10. The vintage benefited from an extended hang time due to the cool and foggy summer months. The wine is lush, with an abundance of fruit-focused flavors and aromas of red licorice, raw coffee beans and dark chocolate. The Amuse Bouche 2009 was aged in a combination of Taransaud, Gamba and Radoux French oak, and bottled in April 2011.

The Artist: Valentino Tango

The original art for Amuse Bouche 2009, "Valentino Tango", was created by internationally renowned, New York-based artist, Hunt Slonem. Slonem's resume boasts more than 350 exhibitions at prestigious galleries and museums around the globe, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the Whitney Museum of American Art. (www.HuntSlonem.com)

93
Points
WINE ADVOCATE
2009 Vintage
"The 2009 Amuse Bouche is laced with freshly cut flowers, sweet spices and expressive red berries. Today, I find the 2009 beautifully expressive, with gorgeous aromatics, layers of fruit and lovely overall balance. This is a decidedly feminine, refined style of California Merlot, but it all works nicely. Layers of fruit continue to blossom through to the structured, powerful finish. Anticipated maturity: 2012-2019." - Wine Advocate, Issue #204, December 2012
IN THE BIG LEAGUES
TASTING PANEL
2009 Vintage
"In this partnership with John Schwartz, winemaker extraordinaire Heidi Barrett makes a powerplay to create a Pomerol-style Merlot with 4% Cab Franc in the Amuse Bouche 2009 Napa Valley Red. This is big league wine for big-league wine fans." - November 2011
94
Points
ANTHONY DIAS BLUE
2010 Vintage
"Chocolate and crisp berries, bright plums and a deeply lush and well balanced profile make this an MVP (Merlot Very Powerful)." - Tasting Panel, November 2011