CORRA Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, California, 2018 (Celia Welch)

Overview of the Wine
After more than twenty-five years of making wines for other Napa Valley vintners, Celia Welch is excited to share with you the wine she has made for her own brand, Corra.

Celia Welch’s first interaction with grapes was under the huge oak tree in her backyard in Southern Oregon, where her siblings and she plucked grape berries from stems for their father, an avid wine collector and home winemaker. Her parents also included the family on trips through Napa and Sonoma in the early sixties, and, like most visitors, she was entranced with the beauty of the rolling vineyards.

In 1982 with a degree in Enology earned at UC Davis in her back pocket, she set out to take a peek at a few wine regions. Her travels took her to the Pacific Northwest, the East Coast, and to New Zealand. She worked harvest in the Barossa Valley of Australia, and then settled in the Napa Valley to refine her craft.

Celia had reached a fork in her career path in the early nineties, and she chose to focus on independent wine consulting. The wines she has made create a microcosm of Napa Valley. She has made wine from vineyards on Mt. Veeder, Atlas Peak, and Howell Mountain to those in Carneros, and from benchland vineyards from St. Helena to Napa.

In 2004 came the idea and the challenge of founding Corra. It was not easy to find vineyard sources with top-quality fruit, a winery with a bit of space to spare for barrels, and a strong team of individuals with experience in different aspects of the wine business from grapevines to websites. The results of these efforts have been tremendous; well-received wines and a project that has lead to information- and idea-sharing for everyone involved.

Once every ten or so years Mother Nature seems to answer our prayers, sending us enough winter cold, enough spring rain, and the right amount of warm summer sun. In those seasons, winemakers rejoice in our good fortune to be able to “choose the moment” for harvest. The juicy, rich, flavor-packed wines which are born by these vintages bring us joy from the day we harvest the grapes until the last drop in the last bottle 20+years later.

Grape / Blend
100% Cabernet Sauvignon

Origin
Napa Valley, California

Tasting Notes
The 2017 Corra Cabernet, which hails from both the rocky eastern slopes and the shallow alluvial soils of Rutherford and Oakville’s western benchlands, abounds with bright, fresh spiced-cherry aromas and a vibrant core of blackberries, vanilla and chai spices. Structurally the wine shows a solid core wrapped in a soft, satiny texture. Enjoy this Cabernet upon release or allow to age for two decades; either way it promises to delight. 100% Cabernet aged in 100% French Oak for 22 months, this wine was neither fined nor filtered prior to bottling.

The 2018 Corra Cabernet Sauvignon encapsulates this season of balance. A combination of ripe red cherry and dark purple blackberries, balanced by both cinnamon bark and forest floor aromas, rise from the glass. On the palate, the entry is both broad and somewhat dense, giving juicy fresh berry flavors early on and promising much more to come for those patient enough to hold the bottle for a few years.

96 Points - Vinous (2018)
Celia Welch’s 2018 Corra Cabernet Sauvignon is a blend taken from choice sites on Pritchard Hill, Rutherford and Oakville. A dense, sumptuous wine, the Corra Cabernet offers up a compelling melange of black cherry, chocolate, new leather and licorice. While many 2018s are quite open in the early going, Corra is going to need some time to be at its most expressive. Even so, it is pretty alluring at this stage.

94+ Points - Robert Parker’s The Wine Advocate (2017)
Deep garnet-purple colored, the 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon features blackberry preserves, baked red and blackcurrants and star anise notes with touches of fallen leaves, dried lavender and tapenade. Full-bodied, firm and crunchy with great depth, the palate is built like a brick house, with beautifully ripe tannins and a fragrant finish.- Lisa Perrotti-Brown

Product size: 750ml