When you mention Napa Valley to most wine lovers, big and bold wines made from Cabernet Sauvignon immediately come to mind, but Napa’s success is based on much more than one grape. If you look hard enough, you can find wines made from a few dozen grape varieties. And if you concentrate on the six traditional Bordeaux grapes, you can find a plenitude of excellent wines. And if you add in the artistic hand of the winemaker and/or blender, you can discover what are arguably some of the planet’s best red blends.
Oleandri Wines 2022 La Scala Red Blend
Founder and proprietor Fred D’Amato grew up in the world of wine and remembers how his two grandfathers, Giovanni Vella and Onofrio D’Amato, contributed to California winemaking with bottling and the introduction of Italian reds and whites in the 1970s. Fred’s winemaker Patrick Saboe attended University of California at Davis and worked at Robert Sinskey Vineyards before joining Oleandri Wines. His 2022 La Scala is a proprietary red blend of 67 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, 20 percent Merlot, 8 percent Cabernet Franc, 4.5 percent Petite Sirah, and 0.5 percent Petit Verdot with aromas of wild red raspberry, black currant, and fennel frond that transition to flavors of black raspberry and cocoa on the palate with just a touch of cigar box in the finish.