Cliff Lede Cabernet Sauvignon Poetry 2021 (750ml)
Product price
$399.99
Description
Cliff Lede's 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Poetry is a Stags Leap District blend of 85% Cabernet Sauvignon with Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Petit Verdot, sourced from the estate's steep, rocky hillside vineyard. It spent 21 months in 74% new French oak.
The wine opens with cedar and mocha spice that gives way to sage, tobacco, and perfumed complexity as it opens. The palate shows dense, inky dark fruit, cassis, black cherry, plum, layered with chocolate, licorice, and espresso notes. What sets this wine apart is its textural refinement: the tannins are remarkably fine-grained and polished, giving the wine a silky, velvety mouthfeel despite its full body and concentration. The balance is striking, with alcohol at 13.8% creating a wine that feels elegant and refreshing rather than heavy. There's a remarkable luminosity to the wine in the glass, and the structure here suggests this will evolve gracefully over time without losing its youthful grace.
Product Details
| Category | Wine |
| Color | Red |
| Country | USA |
| Region | California |
| Subregion | Stags Leap District |
| Varietal | Cabernet Sauvignon |
| Producer | Cliff Lede Vineyards |
| Vintage | 2021 |
| Size | 750 ML |
| Subtype | Still |
Expert Reviews
This wine, a blend of 85% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6% Merlot and Cabernet Franc, and 3% Petit Verdot, spent 21 months ageing in 74% new oak. The grapes were sourced from the steep Poetry estate hillside vineyard in the Stags Leap District AVA. I had previously rated the 2021 release 99 points in my Napa Cabernet vintage report, but rarely do I have the opportunity to revisit wines of this calibre, let alone enjoy them over an entire meal. A few remarkable qualities stood out to me on this occasion. The wine's texture was remarkably smooth and silky, complemented by upfront cedar-spice notes that evolved into sage and rich tobacco aromas with time in the glass, alongside a symphony of perfumed nuances. It was supremely polished on the palate, with superfine tannins creating an elegant structure. And in the glass, it shows such a luminous ruby you can read the first lines of The Great Gatsby straight through it (I like to carry a copy in my jacket pocket just in case the moment calls for a public reading of a line or two). Most striking was the wine's balance at 13.8% alcohol, a feature I wish I had weighed more heavily in my original scoring. Over 90 minutes of tasting alongside various dishes, I felt invigorated and refreshed—an experience that is not always the case with more potent Napa Cabernets. This is precisely the tension-filled, youthful Napa Cabernet that restaurants should showcase to demonstrate the versatility and elegance of the region’s best wines in pairing with food. Ultimately, the 2021 Poetry is perfectly pure, precise, and balanced—a wine of striking honesty and grace and an absolute standout in the 2021 vintage.
The 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Poetry is one of the very finest wines I have ever tasted from Cliff Lede and longtime winemaker Chris Tynan. A classic Stags Leap Cabernet, the 2021 races across the palate with dense, inky fruit, crème de cassis, lavender, licorice, chocolate, spice and espresso. Even with all of its natural density, the 2021 is plush, silky and exceptionally beautiful. Most importantly, Tynan has done an admirable job in taming the tannins in this steep, rocky site, which is an impressive feat. I loved it. (AG)