Annulus, Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, California, 2021

Overview of the Wine
We’ve been fortunate to call the Napa Valley home for more than two decades. Living in this beautiful place, we have forged cherished friendships and close partnerships with world-renowned vintners, growers, and winemakers and honed our love of fine wines. After years of dreaming and planning, together with our daughters Alexandra and Elena, we are delighted to present Annulus and our own interpretation of the wines and Napa Valley vineyards we love.

The spirit and passion we bring to Annulus is also reflected in our decades-long dedication to unraveling the mysteries of a rare, life-threatening autoimmune disease called scleroderma.  

As Board Members of the Scleroderma Research Foundation (SRF) and Directors of the research program, we have spent many years building a pioneering research portfolio and an innovative global clinical trial platform designed to advance new therapies for scleroderma.

Each year, as a part of our fundraising efforts, we join forces with a star-studded group of comedians, actors, musicians and chefs for the cause at the SRF’s signature event, “Cool Comedy • Hot Cuisine.”

In 2021, an early bud break, a long hang time, low yields, and a smaller leaf canopy yielded intense, concentrated fruit at Vine Hill Ranch. 

Grape / Blend
95% Carbetnet Sauvignon, 5% Petit Verdot

Origin
Napa Valley, California

Winemaker's Tasting Notes
Low rainfall and a couple of brief heat spikes favored meticulous farming and resilient vineyards in 2021. Our heritage vineyards—along with our sites in the Stags Leap District and on Diamond Mountain—performed outstandingly. We harvested prior to the significant rainfalls that hit the Napa Valley at the end of the season, and brought in beautifully intact fruit. Careful viticulture and cluster selection across our sites contributed to the structure and character of our wines.

Blended with a touch of Petit Verdot for complexity, our Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon offers an appealingly decadent nose of blueberries, plums, graphite, and sage. The dark fruit flavor profile has an underlying minerality, and it is accented with notes of sagebrush and lilacs. Full-bodied with fine tannins and a core of acidity, it delivers a long and generous finish.

97 Points - Decanter
This wine is intensely aromatic, pure, and bright with lifted dark berry fruit, sagebrush, and earthy minerality with lilacs. Medium to full-bodied with the finest tannins, a slight chocolaty edge, and mouthwatering blood-orange acidity on the finish. Seamless.

94 Points - Jeb Dunnuck
The appellation 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley is well worth your time and money. Blended with a splash of Petit Verdot, it has a terrific array of red, blue, and black fruits intermixed with notions of graphite, spring flowers, and an undeniable sense of minerality. Its balanced, has remarkable purity, fine tannins, and outstanding length. It’s already delicious and impossible to resist, and I see no need to delay gratification, although I have no doubt it has over a decade of prime drinking in it.

94 Points - James Suckling
Polished, focused and velvety… With a majority of the grapes coming from Stags Leap District, it’s full-bodied and harmonious, with light, silky tannins and delicious black cherries, star anise and blackcurrants. Drink or hold.

Product size: 750ml