Wine Advisor
Hundred Acre, The Ark Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon 2009
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Antonio Galloni
The 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon Ark Vineyard emerges from a parcel of old, volcanic soils that inform the wine to a significant degree. A vivid kaleidoscope of iron, ash, tar, smoke, crushed rocks and dark red berries take shape as this fabulous, pedigreed wine shows off its considerable personality. A cool, inward wine, the Ark is all about minerality and pure tension as a backdrop for the characteristic Hundred Acre fruit. A huge, mineral-soaked finish rounds things out in style. The 2009 is the rare Hundred Acre wine that is not likely to offer immediate pleasure. It will more than make up for that in the future. I can't wait to see how this explosive, beguiling Cabernet develops over the next few years.
Reviewed by: Antonio Galloni
The 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon Ark Vineyard is intense. Dark red fruit, flowers, mint, licorice and exotic spices are some of the many notes that flow from this fabulous, textured wine. The 2009 is a huge wine with a bright, bright future.
Reviewed by: Stephen Tanzer
Bright, deep ruby-red. Lively aromas of black raspberry, blueberry, boysenberry and violet. Compellingly rich and chewy, with a 3-D texture to the flavors of black fruits, licorice and spices. Darker in character than the Precious, but also with great inner-mouth energy. Finishes with utterly noble tannins and outstanding slowly building length.
About the Producer
Hundred Acre is an estate based in St Helena in the Napa Valley. It is particularly known for its opulent, single-vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon wines, which regularly achieve top scores from from the major wine critics and publications. Proprietor and former investment banker Jayson Woodbridge bought the 3.6 hectare (9 acre) Kayli Morgan vineyard in Howell Mountain in the late 1990s, naming it for the Hundred Acre Wood from Winnie-the-Pooh. This has been joined by the Ark Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon from a 6 hectare (15 ac) property on Glass Mountain in St Helena, and the Few and Far Between cuvée from a 2 hectare (5 ac) site near the historic Eisele vineyard which features around 10-percent Cabernet Franc. The Precious is a cuvée drawn from all three properties. The vineyard is managed carefully, in such a way that the practices are commensurate with the price of the wines. Vines are pruned to one grape cluster per vine, producing very low yields, and five passes are made at harvest time. At the winery, grapes are sorted berry by berry, and fermented in French oak, usually 500 litre puncheons. Aging time for the wines varies from vintage to vintage, but two years is not out of the ordinary. These wines frequently sell out upon release and are not easy to secure unless one is on the Hundred Acre mailing list. Hundred Acres also produces the Ancient Way Shiraz from the Barossa Valley in Australia. First produced in 2004, it is sourced from an estate-owned vineyard near Greenock Creek, and is aged in new French oak for two years, then racked into fresh new oak French barrels for another two years, before a final year in bottle. It is lush wine with masses of black fruits and again, is one of the most expensive wines from its region.
