Acclaim for Cabernet Sauvignon 'Vin de Terroir'

Ratings

Vintage 1999:

• Excellent

  Grapes for this 100 percent cabernet sauvignon wines come from the highest point of the Renaissance vineyards, and in the wine’s deep, dusty, minerally and earthy qualities, in its muscularity, you feel the sparseness of the soil, the slight strain and effort brought about by the elevation and exposure. A sensualist’s delight, the wine’s bouquet teems with potpourri, licorice and lavender and violets, cloves and sandalwood, macerated and roasted black currants and black cherries. This cabernet sees NO NEW OAK instead, it ages 18 months in large, neutral barrels. It’s quite dry and austere, and zinging acid keeps the structure taut and vibrant. Lovely fruit and incredible presence, but the astringency requires aging until 2012 through 2019 or ‘20. The alcohol level is 12.7 percent. 411 cases.

  
  www.koeppelonwine.com - 10/10/07

• From the New York Times - Thurs. Nov. 28th,2007

  The Pour - By Eric Asimov
  
  "With left-over turkey and stuffing, I had a wonderful California Cabernet Sauvignon, the 1999 Vin de Terroir from Renaissance in the Sierra foothills. This wine was unusual and refreshing for anybody accustomed to the heavy, oaky, overbearing cabernets that have become characteristic in California. By contrast this was graceful and elegant, with a lovely claret-like aroma of cassis, earth, licorice and minerals, lively with structure-bearing tannins still apparent. It went beautifully with the food, though, at $49 a bottle, it would not have been fiscally appropriate for our Thanksgiving crowd."

  
  The Pour By Eric Asimov - The New York Times

Awards

Vintage 1999:

• "For the Oenophile Who Has Everything" - Matt Kramer, The New York Sun - 12/13/06
  

  Renaissance's winemaking style is not what mainstream critics laud today, which more typically run to lush, oaky, overripe cabernets that leap out in big tastings. Renaissance's style, in comparison, is tight-grained, devoid of oakiness, intense and structured for the long term. No prizes for guessing the general critical response.
  However, Renaissance's vineyard is extraordinary. It issues profound cabernets with striking minerality and classic cabernet scents and tastes of plums, black cherry, and leather. These unfurl slowly in the glass, but inexorably. The wine is long gone before you finish sorting out what's on offer.
  The latest Vin de Terroir bottling — which is Renaissance's greatest rendition — is the 1999 vintage. A mere 411 cases were produced.
  What emerges in the 1999 Vin de Terroir is a lush (for Renaissance) cabernet that practically shovels the minerality up to you in both scent and taste.
  Renaissance Cabernet Sauvignon Vin de Terroir 1999 sells for $49 direct from the winery. This is a steal compared with what other, often lesser, California cabernets are offered for today.
  

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