Jeb Dunnuck 94 Points "Always a great value, the 2018 California Red Wine is a Bordeaux blend put together by Andy Erickson. The wine reveals a ruby/purple hue as well as complex notes of red and black fruits, green tobacco, cedary spice, and spring flowers. These all flow to a medium to full-bodied, elegant wine that offers good overall concentration, seamless tannins, and a great finish. Very much in the style of the 2018 vintage with its more streamlined, elegant style, it’s going to benefit from 2-3 years of bottle age (although it’s far from unapproachable today) and keep for a solid 10-12 years or more. This is one of the more age-worthy examples of this cuvée that I recall."
His resumé is extensive, Screaming Eagle ($3 g’s bottle), Harlan, Spottswoode, Ovid, Dalla Valle, Staglin, Favia, Mayacamas, Mulderbosch. Andy knows a thing or two about making some of the greatest wines ever in California. He has been winemaker at some of the most legendary wineries in The United States and is now even dabbling in historic places like South Africa. Andy Erickson, was hired as winemaker at Napa Valley’s Screaming Eagle in 2006 (2006-2011), when Jean Phillips, the founder of the winery that practically invented California Cult Cab status, sold it after 20 years on the 54-acre Oakville estate. Erickson had the unenviable task of filling the shoes of Screaming Eagle winemaker Heidi Peterson Barrett, but his pedigree indicated he’d be up for the task—Erickson started his winemaking career at Harlan Estate and was then named winemaker at Staglin in 2001 before founding his own winery, Favia, in 2003 with his viticulturist wife, Annie Favia; in addition to his duties at Screaming Eagle and Favia, he consulted for Hartwell, Ovid, Dancing Hares, Dalla Valle and Arietta in Napa and Jonata in the Santa Ynez Valley.
His New project Leviathan is sure to become a cult collectible.
English