2012 Blankiet Prince Of Hearts Paradise Hills Cabernet Sauvignon

2012 Blankiet Prince of Hearts Paradise Hills Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon

Wine Advocate # 215 (Oct. 2014)
Review by Robert Parker
Rating: (91)

A blend of 79% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Franc and 1% Petit Verdot, the outstanding 2012 Prince of Hearts Paradise Hills Vineyard is soft, plump and juicy with notes of candied caramel, blackcurrants, sweet kirsch, new saddle leather and licorice. This beautiful second wine should drink well for 10-15 years. This fabulous small estate tucked in the foothills of the Mayacamas Mountains, behind the Dominus Napanook estate in Yountville, continues to turn out a bevy of brilliant wines from proprietors Claude and Katherine Blankiet. As I wrote last year, they have had an amazing group of top wine consultants on their payroll, including viticulturist David Abreu, Helen Turley and John Wetlaufer, Michael Rolland, Martha McClellan, and currently, Denis Malbec. The owners’ only goal is to make world-class wines, and their tiny production of under 2,500 cases is mindboggling for the major effort they are making. In any event, it’s about quality, not quantity. The 2012s are beautifully forward, open-knit, ripe wines, and the 2013s look equally fleshy and beautiful, and perhaps, as a vintage, less backward than many 2013s may prove to be elsewhere.