Sipping Fine Wine

9.0

A full-body Pinot! Deep Ruby with berry aromas, floral and garden spice. On the palate ripe strawberry and dried cherry fruit with vanilla spice and cedar notes. The wine is well structured, silky smooth tannins, balanced acidity carry the wine to a lingering spicy finish. Very Nice! — 6 years ago

Julie McCarthy

9.5

Full flavored, blackberries and spice pairs well with Stilton or on its own. One of the more memorable Pinot noirs. — 7 years ago

Andrew Jones

9.4

Fantastic Pinot. Well-balanced, with hints of cherry, dark chocolate, and vanilla — 7 years ago

Jamie Franklin

9.0

Deep garnet faintly translucent color and full bodied. Lots of dark bramble fruit followed by a touch of oak leading to a short, but smooth and lightly tannic finish. Good value and paired well the BBQ ribs. — 8 years ago

Marty McNees

9.1

Drinking pretty well. Impressive, considering the poor vintage. — 8 years ago

Jennifer Whitney

9.3

Well-balanced. Drink again. — 8 years ago

Daryl Calhoun

9.5

Kudos and many thanks to @Martin G Rivard for sharing this exceptional VHR!! 2 HR decant and paired with a homemade barbecue chicken pizza (really, this carries well!). Thanks to @Ryan Mitchell for purchasing the sweet potato soufflé and corn bread sides to complete the meal. Inky dark with hint of tobacco, smoke and red currents. Tannins already smoothing for a 2013, but this could sit and improve for years a la @David Trumper. Many thanks again @Martin G Rivard, look forward to returning the favor!! — 9 years ago

with Ryan

R David Fuhrman

8.9

Well made ... not my favorite style — 7 years ago

Charlie Tapp

9.2

Black fruit, roasted strawberries, underbrush and oak. Well balanced. — 7 years ago

Terry Pfortmiller

9.3

Holding up well. Very smooth and awesome initial blackberry hints, solid finish to access N Y strip steak tonight. — 7 years ago

Rob Mayes

8.9

Taking on chocolate notes that weren't there a couple years ago. More mushroom on the nose as well that wasn't there before. More dark cherry than I've ever picked up before. Minimal tannin at this point. Not loving the finish. This is past it's prime. — 8 years ago

Craig Stanfield

9.3

On opening it's lush with velvety tannin, dark fruit, licorice, pepper, and juniper. While it's very good, it's not great on opening. I think with time and air it will improve. After an hour there's a big difference. The flavors are all there but in better harmony and not so jammy. — 8 years ago

James Gourley

9.6

Excellent expression. The nose billows out of the glass, with black maraschino cherries, menthol, and wilted rose petals. The acidity accentuates everything on the palate. Well-balanced spicy fruit with schist and sandstone highlights. The acidity sings through to the finish. Great wine. — 9 years ago

Kirk F

9.1

Wine of the night, 2016 Fall Wine Tasting. Well, it tied for first and ties go to the Guest! Agree with other raters on this one. Don't let the label fool u, this is a serious wine. Not Kosta serious but damn good. — 9 years ago

with Avery, Kelly and 4 others

Erin O'Hagan

9.5

Per recommendations from shipment - to be drank from 2017 onward. I was curious though. Decanted for many many hours. By 6 hours in - it was fantastic. Well worth the wait. Dark berries, chocolate and a tobacco almost earthy finish. Will be incredible in years to come. — 9 years ago

Steve Anderson

9.4

T.A. Returns to S.D. 7/7/2018: perfect warm weather red and really showing well right now. @romo wine — 7 years ago

Somm David T

Independent Sommelier/Wine Educator

9.3

On the nose, ripe, ruby, fruits of; mulberry, blackberries, black raspberries, black plum, plum, black cherries, blueberries & creamy raspberries. Vanilla, hints of sweet tarriness, black licorice, whiff of spice, soft understated limestone minerals & crushed rock powder, fruity black tea, hint of fresh herbaceousness, rich, black turned earth, fresh dark floral bouquet and fields of lavender & violets.

The body is rich, ripe & full. The tannins are a little sticky but well softened, round and a touch chewy. The structure, tension, length, balance, tension and balance are very close to perfect and harmonious. Fruits are; mulberry, huckleberry, blackberries, black raspberries, black plum, plum, black cherries & creamy raspberries. Vanilla, hints of sweet tarriness, black licorice, whiff of spice, soft understated limestone minerals & crushed rock powder, fruity black tea, hint of fresh herbaceousness, rich, black turned earth, fresh dark floral bouquet and fields of lavender & violets. The acidity is round and rains like a waterfall perfectly over the palate. The very long, ruby, rich, well balance lasts minutes and is absolutely heavenly. Gorgeous, elegant, stunning wine.

Photos of; the vertical tasting we attended of all Hendricks Cabernets; 04, 05, 09 & 12 at the time w/ one of our favorite paintings in the background, Charles Hendricks working in the cellar, very old rootstock from the Stag’s Leap Vineyard where the fruit to make this wine normally comes from and a wide shot of the Stag’s Leap Vineyard.

Producer notes and history...Hendricks Cabernet Sauvignon is consistently sourced from a few of Napa Valley’s finest vineyards. In those near perfect vintages, Charles only makes a small production wine of around 250-300 cases. Charles only produces it when he has exception fruit. He’s made Hendricks Cabernet in; 2004, 2005, 2009, 2012 & 2014. Notice he didn’t make Hendricks Cabernet in a great vintage year like 2013. He wasn’t happy enough with his fruit in 2013 to put his name on it. That says a lot and maybe all you need to know about his standard for quality. I do know what wine his 13 fruit made as I’ve had and it’s an unbelievable wine for far less money.

Charles also makes a fantastic Pinot Noir from the Santa Lucia Highlands that is really quite amazing. Especially, if you give it 5 or 6 years in bottle. All his wines are sold exclusively through the Hope & Grace tasting room in Yountville as he is also the Hope & Grace Winemaker.

Charles graduated in 1982 from UC Davis in viticulture. He was also able to tailor his own curriculum and was one of the earliest to integrate winemaking and viticulture course work. Having knowledge of both viticulture and enology forms the basis for his well-rounded winemaking.

Over the years Charles has worked in both Napa and Sonoma Counties, gaining hands on experience in all aspects of winemaking. He has a strong reputation for excellence. In his career, he’s been a consulting winemaker for many wineries; Viader, Barnett Vineyards, Paoletti Vineyards, Regusci Winery, James Cole, T-Vine and Tamayo family Vineyard.

I asked Charles, “how does he make wines that are amazingly good in their youth but will age effortlessly for 15-20 years?” His answer was simply this, “its not that hard, you just have to know the perfect time to harvest fruit.” I would agree with that to a degree. But, you also have to know how to gently guide fruit onto it’s path into the barrel and not get in the wine’s way or overwork the process. — 7 years ago

Kapyrick Wine

9.2

V13. Well balanced. Soft floral and tobacco nose melds with rich blackberry fruit and a thick , dry peppery finish. Would work with grilled meats and spicy condiments — 8 years ago

Shawn R

9.2

Dazzling nose of white peach, ocean air and roasted pineapple. Well marked-oak, zingy white peach returns as well as lemon, minerals and oyster shell. Those same notes transcend to the finish also showing flowers and herb notes. — 9 years ago

Geoff Troup

Sales Eder Brothers, Cellar Fine Wines

9.1

Perfect marriage of fruit and tannin. Elegant and very well made, if a bit too classical to be truly enthusiastic about. — 9 years ago