2015 HESS Allomi Vineyard

I have followed this single vineyard wine since being introduced to the 2009 bottling by a Total Wine employee a few years back. The store clerk had asked if I needed help finding anything, he then took a look at the contents of my cart and asked if I had tried the Allomi bottling.

When he described his impressions from the wine, I was intrigued. So after tasting the 2009, I have continued to purchase bottles from good vintages. The wine is always good upon release, and ages nicely, developing additional nuances with well integrated tannins.

The Allomi Vineyard is in Pope Valley, a remote area of Napa county, at the eastern base of Howell Mtn. The winters are very cold, (by CA standards) but summers are quite warm with a long growing season resulting in optimal ripening of the grapes.

The vineyard is now about 15 years old, I think it continues to mature and produce better fruit each year. The 2015 is definitely special, surprisingly approachable for being only 2 years old, with black cherry, plum, cocoa powder, and a bit of blackberry in the nose when first opened. It has matching flavors on the palate, nice acidity, with some spice on the finish.

The second day brings more blackberry in the nose, combined with the cherry and other black fruit notes. The wine becomes thicker, nicely mouth coating, with mixed berry, almost a blackberry pie/compote taste, with a nice lingering finish. This is a very good wine, I would pair this with an herb crusted prime rib dinner, grilled garlic/rosemary lamb chops, various grilled Angus steaks with herb butter, etc...

On sale now at NH liquor outlets for $24.99,  a markdown of $10.00 per bottle. This is a great value for a Napa wine, usually you'd pay twice that for something this good.... same price at Total Wine stores. This would be a great addition to your Christmas dinner table, or for any special occasion.

Cheers,

Ed