2021 A. Rafanelli, Cabernet Sauvignon, Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma County.
The latest Rafanelli Cabernet Sauvignon, made by Shelly Rafanelli, is a gem and a sumptuous dark fruited and deep wine with classic Rafanelli expressiveness and dimension, showing off polished tannins, a fine balance and finessed use of new oak. The full bodied palate is fresh and youthful with loads of blackberry, currant, plum and black cherry fruits, hints of anise, acacia flowers, sage and tobacco, as well as smoky French oak framing and lingering creme de cassis. This purple/garnet Cab, which has a tiny bit of Merlot added, really impresses in the glass, adding a subtle loam, graphite and spice background details, and I think it will only get better with bottle age. The A. Rafenelli winery, as I’ve said before, became a cult hit with California wine lovers in the 1990s, especially under David A. Rafanelli, Shelly’s dad, who certainly brought this little known winery to the world’s attention with a series of outstanding wines, that rivaled all the top Zin producers, most notability the likes of Ridge, Turley and Biale, putting Dry Creek in the spotlight. The younger Rafanelli, Shelly has employed fermentations in small open top tanks with full extraction and a cool maceration period, after which the wines, like this one, then see between 18 and 22 months in exclusively French wood with about a third new, and the rest in 1 and 2 times filled barrels.
The A. Rafanelli Winery and Vineyards, as I’ve noted in prior reviews, was founded by Alberto and Letizia Rafanelli, both Italian immigrants, back in the early 1900’s when they settled in the Healdsburg area with their family, as the winery notes, and started growing grapes and making wine. Things didn’t really get going until after prohibition, but after which their son Americo Rafanelli took over the family business and then moved the winery to its Dry Creek Valley location in the early 1950s, where he focused on premium grape growing. Most of the grapes and or wines were sold off until the early 1970s when he started his iconic A. Rafanelli label with mainly Zinfandel offerings, along this very limited bottling of Cabernet Sauvignon. David, who got his degree in Viticulture from UC Davis, really brought quality and direction to Rafanelli, with his mid to late 1990s bottlings being absolute stars and that has continued to current releases, with his daughter Shelly making the wines. She came to the winery after graduating from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, with their excellent enology program, and worked side-by-side with her father until becoming the head winemaker in 2000. She and her husband Craig Fehlman, who manages all of their vineyards, are carrying on the family tradition, and taking the wines to the next level, which is no mean feat. There’s a lot to admire here at Rafanelli, they are making soulful wines that are faithful to their traditions, but still will appeal to those new to their wines.
($75 Est.) 94 Points, grapelive