This is an outstanding well-structured, delicious and fruit forward wine….It’s wines like this that make Napa so popular!

The Martin Stelling Vineyard,  planted in 1978 , and located behind the winery in Oakville, is the cornerstone of Far Niente Cabernet Sauvignon.  It is a blend of 94% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Petit Verdot, 1% Cabernet Franc aged 17 months in French oak (83% new, 17% once used).

My tasting notes follow:

Color – Opaque violet
Aromas – Aromatic mixed berry, violets, black cherry, and tasty oak
Body – Medium-bodied with ample fruit nicely balanced with medium-acidity and a wonderful texture featuring well-integrated velvety sweet tannins
Tastes – Boysenberry, blackberry, black cherry, dark chocolate and graphite
Finish – Long

92pts|14.5% abv|SRP-$122 per Cellar Tracker| This wine was a gift

This is an outstanding well-structured, delicious and fruit forward wine from an outstanding vintage. It’s wines like this that make Napa so popular!

Pair with: Braised Short Ribs

About Far Niente

Far Niente was established in 1885 by John Benson, a forty-niner of the California gold rush and uncle of the famous American impressionist painter, Winslow Homer.

Far Niente prospered until the onset of Prohibition in 1919, when it was abandoned and left to fall into disrepair. Sixty years later, in 1979, Gil Nickel purchased the winery and adjacent vineyard and began a three-year restoration of the property, which resulted in placement on the National Register of Historical Places. During restoration, the original name, Far Niente, from an Italian phrase that romantically translated means “without a care,” was found carved in stone on the front of the building where it remains to this day. We felt an obligation to preserve the name with the hope that we could recapture a bygone era when life was indeed without a care.

Nineteen eighty-two marked the return of winemaking to Far Niente, with the harvest of the winery’s first Cabernet Sauvignon. Chardonnay was also produced at the winery for the first time that year; the 1979, ’80 and ’81 vintage wines were made at an offsite location. Today, the winery continues to focus on producing only the two varietal wines.

Far Niente’s past and present were reunited in 1998, when a bottle of Far Niente Sweet Muscat, vintage 1886, was discovered in a private cellar in Marin County, California. The bottle exhibits the original label, cork and capsule, and is believed to be the oldest intact bottle of California wine in existence today.

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