2012 Edict Wines Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 750 ml

2012 Edict Cabernet Sauvignon: “A Spring Mountain Cakewalk”

If you’ve hit the jackpot in the last couple of years, and you’re considering building a winery in Napa Valley so you can “live the dream,” the story of Charles Bartlett’s powerhouse 2012 Edict Cabernet Sauvignon is a must-read.

Bartlett has worked in Napa since the late 1970s and has built a very successful wine trading company, working with many of the top names in the mountain AVAs. For years, he’d considered hanging out his own winery shingle. But each time he considered taking the plunge, he thought better of it and checked his ego at the door — reminding himself that it’s far easier to craft excellent mountain Cabernet Sauvignon than to sell it!

Finally, however, in May 2012, as he watched the high-end market begin to percolate, Charles did what he swore he’d never do. Recognizing the uniqueness of the opportunity at hand, he went for it, with gusto.

The spring of 2012 had been unusually mild and dry. The fruit set on the valley floor was copious. Even on the steep slopes of Petrus Bekker’s Eeden Vineyard — the site of the old Beringer vineyard high up Spring Mountain Road — yields were nearly 35% higher than the norm. The same was true of Bartlett’s favored Atlas Peak parcel, the Kitoko Vineyard perched high above the fog line. Charles wasted no time calling Kitoko and Bekker, locking into every ton he could get his hands on.

When we visited Napa Valley in July 2012, growers up and down the Silverado Trail were beaming ear to ear. The Cabernet Sauvignon crop was magnificent, both qualitatively and quantitatively. The summer had been warm and exceedingly dry, but without the torrid heat spikes that mar so many growing seasons. If the weather held out, particularly in the late-harvested mountain AVAs, the very first release of Charles Bartlett’s Edict Cabernet Sauvignon would be drawn from one of the most extraordinary vintages in valley history.

If you’ve been reading WineAccess, Wine Spectator or Parker’s Wine Advocate in recent months, you know what followed. Barely a drop of rain fell between June and August. Nature never missed a beat. A few September showers rejuvenated vines, staving off hydric stress. From then until the mid-October harvest, Charles told us, “It was a Spring Mountain cakewalk.”

Robert Parker called Napa Valley’s miraculous 2012 vintage “a gloriously ostentatious, charming, rich, well-balanced vintage that will drink well young yet, certainly in the best cases, have 20-30 years of longevity ahead of it.” Regarding the inaugural release of Charles Bartlett’s PHENOMENAL 2012 Edict Cabernet Sauvignon, Parker couldn’t have said it any better.

The 2012 Edict Cabernet Sauvignon was drawn ENTIRELY from Spring Mountain’s Eeden Vineyard (60%) and Atlas Peak’s Kitoko Vineyard (40%). Opaque purple-black in color. Large-scaled and almost brawny aromatically, infused with a muscular mix of black fruits, graphite, and licorice. Broad and voluptuous on the attack, briery and almost chewy in texture, the core is packed with black-fruit preserves, doused with sweet crème de cassis, all the natural opulence of 2012 buttressed by sturdy mountain tannins. Drink now-2025.

$65 on release. Offered today on WineAccess for a fraction of the price. The last 600 bottles are up for grabs.