Fortunate Son - The Warrior Napa Valley 2019 (750ml)
Price: $400.00
| Producer | Fortunate Son |
| Country | USA |
| Region | California |
| Varietal | Cabernet Blend |
| Vintage | 2019 |
| Sku | 9577 |
| Size | 750ml |
Jeb Dunnuck: 98 Points
The 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon The Warrior is riveting stuff offering an incredible array of sweet darker currants tobacco leaf lead pencil and classy oak. It's a big rich wine yet it's not over the top and has a semi-opaque purple hue medium to full body seamless tannins and a layered silky incredibly satisfying style that's going to evolve for two decades.
The Wine Independent: 98 Points
The 2019 The Warrior is deep garnet-purple in color. Creme de cassis plum preserves and chocolate-covered cherries give way to suggestions of sandalwood camphor and tar with a waft of fallen leaves. The full-bodied palate is concentrated and intense with loads of earthy layers and a firm grainy backbone finishing long and layered. Reviewed by: Lisa Perrotti-Brown Review date: 2023-11-30
James Suckling: 97 Points
Aromas of dark berries chocolate terra-cotta and bark. Full and layered with fine velvety tannins that give a juicy and intense finish. Delicious all around. From the owner of Napa?s Hundred Acre winery. Drink or hold.
Wine Advocate: 95 Points
Across the board the 2019s at this address are riper and plusher than the 2018s and Fortunate Son's 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon The Warrior is no exception. Black cherries and red cherries join cedar and vanilla shadings on the nose while the full-bodied palate is expansive and plush turning velvety on the long finish. Fortunate Son is a Jayson Woodbridge/Hundred Acre offshoot made using contracted fruit (but which in the past has also included some bits from Hundred Acre lots). Now run by Jayson's son Cameron the winery facility is in St. Helena on the site of the historic David Fulton Winery (established 1860 the first in St. Helena). The 15 acres of vineyards there were replanted in 2021. Woodbridge is fiercely protective of his fruit sourcing refusing to say except in the most general terms where the fruit originates for his Fortunate Sons bottlings. He'll approach family-owned vineyards and pay by the acre (wants low yields) bringing in Jim Barbour to do the farming with the biggest caveat being that growers can't say to whom they're selling. Woodbridge says he'll pick in several passes so it can be three or four times as expensive as if the vineyard had been picked all at once. The harvest is cluster sorted in the field then by cluster again on the table destemmed and sorted by hand then through an optical sorter then again by hand on the way to the puncheon for fermentation in barrel. "Not a single thing makes it through that shouldn't" Woodbridge says. "It's the least profitable line we have but I drink it." These wines were tasted in February 2023 at Woodbridge's offices in St. Helena. My predecessor gave the 2018s stunning reviews back in December 2021. While my reviews are perhaps not quite as flattering the wines are excellent and I think including my reviews of the 2018s will provide context for the even better 2019s which I've also reviewed here. Published: May 04 2023
