Cervantes Family Vineyards is a 1,100 Acre Ranch in the far eastern reaches of Napa Valley last frontier, marks the highest profile project where winemaker Andy Erickson (Favia, Dalla Valle, Mayacamas, Arietta, and formerly of Screaming Eagle, Harlan and Staglin) and Xavier Cervantes Family are growing a text book Napa Valley hill side wines. Where wild deer and bears still roam, giving the feeling of an uncharted feral frontier to these elegant and polish wines. Cervantes' estate marks the highest-profile project yet to bottle an estate Pope Valley wine made at a Pope Valley winery. This is a singular dream to realize the full possibility of the unsung terroir of Pope Valley and finally giving justice to one of Napa's great landscapes.

96+ Points Robert Parker's Wine Advocate: A blend of 76% Cabernet Sauvignon, 23% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot, the deep garnet-purple colored 2016 MMXVI Cabernet Sauvignon gives up gregarious notions of warm red and black currants, black raspberries and warm plums with hints of chocolate mint, pencil shavings and tilled loam plus a waft of lilacs. Full-bodied, firm and grainy, the palate is built like a brick house with super ripe, super firm tannins and bags of bold, expressive, multifaceted fruit, finishing very long and mineral-laced.

"The 2016 vintage in Napa Valley is being heralded as one of richness, density, and varietal purity. The second vintage from the hillsides of the Cervantes ranch blessed us with a growing season that was long, warm but relatively mild. These conditions allowed the grapes to fully mature with a noteworthy balance between tannin, acid, and aromatics. At the winery, the grapes were carefully sorted and delivered to the tanks without crushing. We fermented with careful attention to preserving aromas and freshness while extracting the right amount of tannin and building the mid-palate. The wines were drained and pressed to French oak barrels for 22 months of aging to further contour the mouthfeel of the wine and plait the many layers of flavor and texture. The resulting wine has an ever-growing list of aromas, from raspberry and sage to cardamom, orange peel, cedar, black licorice, and newly tanned leather. The longer the wine sits in the glass, the more layers are revealed. The wine’s brilliant red-purple hue hints at its dense fruit core, which is followed on the palate by a rush of baking spices, incense, orange oil, and completed by a mouthwatering, savory finish. It has “great bones,” a proper tannic scaffold to support the wine as it ages. While accessible now with a careful decanting, the 2016 Cervantes will continue its beautiful journey and gain complexity over many years to come"...ANDY ERICKSON / WINEMAKER