2012 Atalon Pauline's Cuvee Proprietary Red Napa Valley is sold out.

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2012 Atalon Pauline's Cuvee Proprietary Red Napa Valley 750 ml

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  • Curated by unrivaled experts
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  • Get credited back if a wine fails to impress

Calling All Right Bank Bargain-Hunters — An “Outstanding” Under-$20 Red Blend!

For those of you who continue to fill our inboxes, clamoring for brilliant under-$20 reds made by elite winemakers, you have two choices: Either hop in a time machine and head back to the stormy days of the Great Recession, or tune in to WineAccess on rare days like today, when Brian Kosi puts the bargain-hunters on high alert.

Kosi’s 2012 Atalon “Pauline’s Cuvée” is a tribute to Bordeaux’s Right Bank, showing Cabernet-like concentration in a velour-like, Merlot-dominant package. Both Robert Parker and his former protégé Antonio Galloni have showered it with the kind of praise usually reserved for Merlot heavyweights like Duckhorn and Havens. Parker calls it “outstanding,” a “beauty,” and a “full-bodied, lush, heady wine,” while Galloni finds it “sexy” and “plump, juicy and resonant.”

“Pauline’s Cuvée” draws power and structure from three blue-chip AVAs: Oakville fruit lends rich, concentrated flavors; Rutherford grapes provide classic dusty-tannin backbone; and tiny, thick-skinned berries from the renowned Stagecoach Vineyard on Atlas Peak give it mountain muscle. Merlot sourced from a choice parcel in Coombsville, where uniquely chilly days yield longer hang-times, contributes that decadent Napa Valley concentration, bolstered by Right Bank freshness.

In his vintage report entitled “Napa’s Cup Runneth Over,” Robert Parker wrote that the 2012s have “exuberant, boisterous, even flamboyant personalities, sweet, well-integrated tannins, (and) intense fruit extract.” Parker recognized all this and more in “Pauline's Cuvée,” which he said exhibited “the vintage’s telltale purity.”

The 2012 Atalon “Pauline’s Cuvée” is deep purple in color. Lavishly aromatic, showing dark berries, crushed violets, graphite, tobacco, and cocoa on the nose. Velvety soft and plush on the attack, with seductive black cherry and plum-like flavors and plenty of sweet oak spices, licorice, and cinnamon, finishing with vibrant and dusty-tannin backbone. This is a hedonistic wine that will live another decade in the cellar.

Matching 90-point scores from Parker and Galloni. At $17.99/bottle, we recommend a CASE-BUY. Shipping included on 6.