2016 Carbone Red Wine Napa Valley 750 ml

Screaming Eagle Alum’s $75 Blockbuster Red

Today’s 2016 Carbone Red Wine Napa Valley hails from one of Napa’s greatest power couples—Andy Erickson and Annie Favia. Annie’s viticultural work began with David Abreu, shepherding Napa’s Grand Cru vineyards for Harlan, Screaming Eagle, Ovid, Sloan, Bryant, Colgin, and Staglin. Andy’s first winemaking job was with John Kongsgaard at Newton, and then Bob Levy of Harlan scooped him up to make BOND. Later, he became the winemaker at Ovid, Arietta, Screaming Eagle, and Dalla Valle.

Together in 2003, Andy and Annie quietly launched Favia. Earlier this summer, we visited them at their Coombsville home, and left with a 30-case allocation of the 2016 Carbone. Today, courtesy of Andy and Annie, we have another 15 cases up for grabs!! This is the second vintage produced of this gorgeous, juicy, layered, rich and delicious Bordeaux-style blend, which incorporates grapes from Favia vineyards, made in a truly approachable style. At $75 per bottle, this 2016 Carbone Red drinks like a wine that’s twice it’s price.  

A list of the perfect 100-point and near-perfect critical scores that Andy Erickson has received in his career would take up an entire page. But during the first several years, no Favia wines were submitted for review. Instead, Andy and Annie offered them exclusively to their mailing list and a handful of select restaurants. Annie credits Thomas Keller’s The French Laundry as being one of their strongest early supporters.

Earlier this summer, I visited Andy and Annie at their property in Coombsville. Greeted first by Chester the cat, Andy and Annie soon followed, and we toured their historic property together.

An Italian family with the surname Carbone built a house, winery, and barns on these grounds in 1886. The original home—where Andy and Annie now live—has been fully restored. The tiny, one-room ground floor cellar is the original winery the Carbone’s used. Today, it’s been fully updated, with a small additional crushpad added, and is where all of Favia wines are produced.

When restoring the house and winery, they found old letters and artifacts from the Carbone family tucked away in nooks and crannies. One piece of paper held the Carbone family crest from Italy—a depiction of three comets—and it now graces the Carbone wine label. “We really care about this Valley, and this site,” Andy said. “To be able to restore it to some glory and bring it into the next century is really an honor.”

We made our way to a small sitting area under an oak tree. Andy pulled a cork on the 2016 Carbone. Under Annie’s meticulous farming, the grapes for the Favia and Carbone wines are sustainably farmed. “I want to know that everything I do is having a positive long-term reaction,” she said. Andy and Annie share a love for Cabernet Franc, which makes up the core of the 2016 Carbone, supported by Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot. It’s a seductive and opulent blend that builds what Andy looks for in a wine: texture, polish, and structure. In the glass, it is superb, with dark fruits, spice, savory herbs, and a gloriously long finish.

Like the first vintages of their Favia wines, Carbone’s inaugural release wasn’t submitted to critics. The 2016 release, however, will be sent for review. But before your favorite critics weigh in, we’re offering access to this brilliant wine that will bring joy, and sheer pleasure now and for years to come. It is meant for those among you who appreciate that a magnificent, truly special wine is at your fingertips.