2007 Verite La Joie Proprietary Blend California Red

2007 Verite La Joie Proprietary Blend

100 RP

Featured Review

Composed of 68% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Franc and the rest Petit Verdot and Malbec, the 2007’s fruit came from four sources, Alexander Valley Mountain Estate, Knight’s Valley, Chalk Hill and Bennett Valley. This utterly perfect, flawless wine reveals great intensity along with a wonderful perfume of roasted coffee, blueberries, blackberries, spring flowers, forest floor and crushed rock. Full-bodied and viscous without being heavy, the wine possesses admirable precision as well as good acidity and balance. This stunning wine is developing beautifully. It contains 14.4% alcohol (one of the highest amounts) and a final pH of 3.64. It should last another 30 years. Robert Parker

Robert Parker | 100 RP

The blend is mainly Cabernet Sauvignon, with the other four classic Bordeaux varieties added for complexity. The grapes were sourced from vineyards throughout Sonoma County, and the finished wine was aged in 75% new oak. It's very fine, with concentrated, intense blackberry, cherry and crème de cassis flavors.Minerality, in the form of granite, lends a lick of stone. It's still extremely tannic, and needs much more timebefore it begins to come around.

Wine Enthusiast | 96 WE

(14.6% alcohol): Full bright ruby. Very reticent but pure aromas of cassis, licorice, violet, espresso and spices. Penetrating, tight wine with terrific energy to its intense flavors of blueberry, boysenberry, minerals and licorice. But still extremely unevolved and not yet showing its inherent complexity. Finishes with serious, firm-edged tannins that still need time to soften. The least yielding of the three Vérité 2007s, and the least sweet. But this very long Médoc blend has all the elements for a long and glorious evolution in bottle.

Vinous Media | 93+ VM

Type of Wine	California Red : Whether it's Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah or Zinfandel, Californian red wine producers have a lovely habit of taking a varietal and expressing its essence in a unique, never before seen way. From Napa Valley to the regions south of Los Angeles, there's a red for everyone - and it's never too late to start exploring.
Varietal	Proprietary Blend : Proprietary Blend is a general term used to indicate that a wine is comprised of multiple grape varietals which are either “proprietary” to the winery or is blended and does not meet the required maximum or minimum percentage of a particular varietal. This also is the case for the grape’s place of origin, especially for region, appellation or vineyard designated wines. There are endless examples of blended wines which are labeled as “Proprietary Blend” and in conjunction with each region’s stipulated wine laws and regulations makes for a vast blanket for wines to fall into. Perhaps the simplest example is California; if a wine is to be labeled as Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, it is required to have at least 75% of the varietal (Cabernet Sauvignon) and 85% of the fruit must be cultivated from the Napa Valley wine district. If the wine does not meet the requirements, it is then labeled as Proprietary Blend.
Country	US : As one of the most prolific and innovative wine regions in the world, America is a joy to explore. Most wine connoisseurs will agree that the nation's finest and most compelling wines are being produced today, which means that we have front-row seats to one of the most inspirational stories in wine history. While other regions tend to focus on specific wine styles and have somewhat strict rules as to which varietals you could grow, areas like California have few such restrictions in place. As a result, creative visionaries behind America's most reputable estates have been able to develop compelling, unique, and innovative styles, with a level of terroir expression that rivals even France's largest giants.
Region	California : With a history of wine production that dates back to the 18th century, California currently sits as one of the world's most prolific and reputable wine regions. With an area as vast as California, you can expect a colorful collage of terroir profiles, a series of microclimates, and micro-environments that give the wine a unique, memorable appeal. The region's produce is far from homogenized in that sense, and it would take you countless hours to sample all of it. While the region boasts scars from the Prohibition era, it went through what can only be described as a viticultural Renaissance sometime after the 1960s. At that point, California went from a port-style, sweet wine region to a versatile and compelling competitor on the world market. Today, no matter which way your taste in wine leans, you can find a new favorite producer among California's most talented. Notable sub-regions include legendary names like Napa Valley and Sonoma County, places that any wine lover would die to visit. California's quintessential warm climate allows for incredibly ripe fruit expressions, a style that provides a stark contrast to Old World-inspired, earthy classics. Even where inspiration was clearly taken from staple French appellations, Californian winemakers put their own unique spin on the wine.