97 points Robert Parker's Wine Advocate - Coming from plantings at Panek Vineyard in St. Helena, mostly based around clone 6 Cabernet Sauvignon, 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Panek Vineyard has a vibrant deep garnet-purple color and prances out of the glass with vivacious black cherries, wild blueberries and blackcurrants scents plus suggestions of violets, bay leaves, tilled earth and black tea. Medium to full bodied, the palate is tightly knit with firm, grainy tannins and a lively line cutting through the stacked, lively fruit, finishing long with amazing freshness. (LPB) (7/2019)
96 points Jeb Dunnuck - The 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Panek Vineyard comes from a site in St. Helena and offers a darker, savory style as well as plenty of blue fruits, violets, tobacco, and damp earth. With bright acidity, a silky, elegant texture, and terrific purity, it’s a more vibrant, juicier, fresher wine than the Melanson Vineyard. Give bottle 2-4 years and drink over the following two decades. 96+ (1/2019)
94 points Vinous - The 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Panek Vineyard is gorgeous. Bright red cherry, sweet tobacco, mint and rose petal notes give the 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Panek Vineyard a level of brilliance that sets it apart from most other Cabernets being made off this site. Plush, elegant and sensual to its core, the 2016 is a winner from Pulido-Walker and winemaker Thomas Rivers Brown. (AG) (12/2018)
The 2016 growing season benefited tremendously from the return of significant winter rainfall across the Napa Valley. Whereas the challenging 2015 season produced smaller yields of high-quality fruit, 2016 was more in keeping with the textbook vintages of 2012 and 2014, with a longer and milder growing season. As a result, the 2016 Pulido~Walker Panek Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon tells a story all about site and varietal. With less stress on the vines thanks to rain, extended hang time, and no weather drama, the wine speaks unmistakably of this particular place.
We harvest from five different blocks in this vineyard. In past years, there have been standout lots of wine associated with individual blocks and clones, but 2016 has changed all that. The combination of vine maturity and new farming efforts brought all five into the limelight in 2016. While the final clonal blend remains the same this vintage, clones 4 and 337 will play their own starring roles in coming vintages.
Winemaking & Tasting Notes
The 2016 Panek Vineyard Cabernet shows a good mix of acidity and tannins, a welcome counterpoint to the generous fruit profile we’ve come to expect from this valley floor locale. While the previous vintage is highly structured, with more prominent tannins than we usually get from this site, the 2016 is a beautiful balance of structure and luscious fruit.
There is a more deeply satisfying mineral completeness to the 2016 Panek Vineyard Cabernet than we’ve seen previously—a new milestone for wine from this site that will prove to be its hallmark as the vines continue to mature. The wine is darker, with more black-fruit qualities balancing the caramelized sugar aspects of red fruit. The relationship of the two is as ideal as we’ve anticipated it could be, marrying round tannins and excellent acidity. The 2016 Pulido~Walker Panek Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon is a wine destined to enchant for decades to come.
We harvest from five different blocks in this vineyard. In past years, there have been standout lots of wine associated with individual blocks and clones, but 2016 has changed all that. The combination of vine maturity and new farming efforts brought all five into the limelight in 2016. While the final clonal blend remains the same this vintage, clones 4 and 337 will play their own starring roles in coming vintages.
Winemaking & Tasting Notes
The 2016 Panek Vineyard Cabernet shows a good mix of acidity and tannins, a welcome counterpoint to the generous fruit profile we’ve come to expect from this valley floor locale. While the previous vintage is highly structured, with more prominent tannins than we usually get from this site, the 2016 is a beautiful balance of structure and luscious fruit.
Although yield declined by about a third, the shatter we saw during spring bloom paved the way for a big bump in quality and flavor concentration as the remaining fruit matured. “A naturally small crop has a huge effect on quality,” winemaker Thomas Rivers Brown explains. “We can’t duplicate that by dropping fruit.” Berries in the Melanson Vineyard hung longer and in looser clusters for the remainder of the 2015 season, ultimately making the Pulido~Walker Cabernet Sauvignon from this site a better wine.
Winemaking & Tasting Notes
The concentration of this vintage means the wine comes across as more fruit driven than in past years, although the savory notes and dried-herb quality we associate particularly with Clone 7 are still readily apparent. The wine is a pure expression of black fruits, minus the tsunami of tannin one might expect from a vintage this inky dark. The finish is seemingly endless.
