The unfined, unfiltered 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve spends two years in French oak and another year in the bottle before being released. This cuvee has a long track record of aging (the 1990 and 1991 are still going strong). The dense ruby/purple-tinged 2006 offers notes of new saddle leather, black currants, autumnal vegetation/forest floor, cassis, and cherries, superb richness, and a full-bodied, powerful finish. Cellar it for 5-6 years, and drink it over the following 25 years.

Todd Anderson and his winemaker, Mac Sawyer, are on top of their game at this backwater winery tucked away in Conn Valley, a few miles east of the Meadowood Resort. Anderson’s Conn Valley Vineyards became famous because of their long-lived, impressive 100% Cabernet Sauvignon from their estate vineyards in Conn Valley. They have added two brilliant proprietary reds, the Right Bank (usually dominated by Merlot with the balance Cabernet Franc), and the Eloge, a wine that is based on a French Medoc with two-thirds Cabernet Sauvignon and the rest Cabernet Franc, Merlot, and Petit Verdot. Conn Valley’s wine possesses a distinctive singularity as there is not another wine in Napa that is reminiscent of them.
by Robert Parker, Issue #186, December 2009