Pulido-Walker 2017 Panek Vineyard Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon

95 points – Jeb Dunnuck Appellation: St. Helena, Napa Valley Varietal: 100% Cabernet Sauvignon Clones: 6, 7, 169, and 337 Aging: 20 months in 100% French oak (80% new barrels) Barrel Coopers: Darnajou, Ermitage, and Taransaud Alcohol: 14.7% by vol. 2017 in the Napa Valley was a year none here will soon forget. Intensive winter rains brought widespread flooding that signaled, in no uncertain terms, the end of Northern California’s drought. Summer began with a pair of heat spikes in June and culminated in a brutal Labor Day heat wave, during which daytime temperatures soared as high as 120 degrees. But the most dramatic events of 2017 began overnight on October 8, quickly raging into a complex of wildfires that burned thousands of acres and hundreds of homes, including the Pulido-Walker Estate residence. As devastating as these fires were, they had no impact on the 2017 Pulido-Walker Cabernet Sauvignon. Harvest and crush were completed before the blaze ignited, and we are thankful that o