2007 Penché Argent Proprietary Red Wine Napa Valley 750 ml

2007 Penché “Argent” Proprietary Red — Wine Spectator 92pts — Direct from the Cellar

Based on tasting notes of bottles pulled recently from our cellars, Napa Valley’s 2007 Cabernet Sauvignons — drawn from a monumental harvest that earned 96 points from Robert Parker and 97 from Wine Spectator — are just beginning to shed their baby fat, settling in for the long haul. If your cellars are loaded with 2007s, congratulations. You’re in for some unforgettable evenings in the years to come.

Alternatively, you can scour the cellars of Napa Valley looking for Library wines. And maybe, just maybe, you’ll catch a break as we did, and stumble upon a few cases of Wine Spectator’s 92-point 2007 Penché — crafted by Wine Spectator “Rising Star,” Jay Buoncristiani — offered at a price that’s 55% LESS than the release price of 2010!

Lots of successful people dream of buying a property in Napa Valley, living the good life as they tend a few acres of world-class Cabernet. Unfortunately, many quickly learn that the “good life” and wine-growing don’t always go hand in hand. Such was the case for Bay Area orthodontist Scott Asbill.

In 2002, just a short time after the Asbills purchased this small property where a 250-year-old oak tree leans precariously over the house, an insidious rumor made its way up the valley. Word had it that the vine mealybug was infesting the fine, nutrient-rich soils of Oak Knoll. Paula Asbill was concerned. Scott couldn’t sleep. One morning, Paula awoke early and made her way to the kitchen to perk the first pot of coffee of the day. She found her husband sitting at the breakfast counter, already on edge, loaded for bear. An hour later, armed with just two toothbrushes, they walked each row and inspected every plant, pulling back bark on anything that looked suspicious, then scrubbing the wood with toothbrushes to remove any trace of the mealybug.

Obsessive grape-growing stories like these have a way of making their way into the Napa Valley underground, often drawing the attention of the most innovative winemakers on the Silverado Trail. Soon after Jay Buoncristiani heard the story, he made his way to Oak Knoll to meet the orthodontist-turned-grape-grower, hoping to buy some fruit for his family’s Buoncristiani Winery. But when “J-Bone” saw first-hand how meticulously Scott Asbill was farming his vineyard, the winemaker decided to do one better. He and Asbill agreed to team up to make just a few hundred cases of Cabernet. Asbill named his brand Penché, for the leaning oak tree.

The Asbills’ vineyard sits in the middle of one of the wider points of the Napa Valley. Like most of the valley floor in the surrounding Oak Knoll District, the vineyard is planted on alluvial soils intermixed with gravel and clay. As the Oak Knoll District is far enough south to take full advantage of the morning fog that drifts in on summer mornings from the San Pablo Bay, even in a warm vintage like 2007 that moderating influence took the sting out of the summer sun, allowing Asbill to delay harvest until early October, making for the sensational 2007 Penché “Argent” Proprietary Red.

Jay Buoncristiani’s 2007 Penché “Argent” is dark purple. Still primary and quite youthful aromatically, showing little sign of its six years of bottle age. Infused with precise aromas of black cherry, black raspberry, mocha, clove, and cedar. Rich, dense, yet now beautifully composed. Packed with crushed black- and red-fruit preserves. All of the opulence of the vintage buttressed by fine, dusty tannins. Arguing, as Wine Spectator did, for another 5-7 years of cellar slumber.

92 points from Wine Spectator. $58 on release. Just $32 for a very short time this morning — ONLY on WineAccess. Total production: 260 cases. The last 300 bottles of the vintage are now up for grabs.