It was a beautiful day and I was finishing a wine tasting that Korbin Ming was conducting at my local wine shop The Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan.  Korbin Ming is the Associate Winemaker at Korbin Kameron Winery, one of the many hats he wears at the winery and at Moonridge Vineyards all at Mount Veeder.   He next poured the Korbin Kameron Cabernet Sauvignon Estate Grown Sonoma Valley 2011.  This wine in newer vintages carries the Moon Mountain District AVA of Sonoma Valley.  This wine spent eighteen months of aging in French Oak, of which half of the barrels were new; and there were about six-hundred cases produced of this wine.  The earliest vintage that I have tried from the winery was their 2005 and the 2011 was big and sassy, just like that one.  For a ten-year-old wine, this wine was what a Cabernet Sauvignon can be and it shows what a mountain wine can achieve with those additional hours and days of sunlight, since they are located above the morning fog of the valleys.

We then shifted over to the Korbin Kameron Estate Blend Red Wine Cuvee Kristin Sonoma Valley 2011, and named after Korbin and Kameron’s sister Kristin, who also works for the family business.  The Korbin Kameron Estate Blend Red Wine Cuvée Kristin 2011 was thirty percent Cabernet Sauvignon, twenty percent Petit Verdot, twenty percent Malbec, seventeen percent Merlot and thirteen percent Cabernet Franc.  There were two-hundred cases made of this wine and it was a big chewy red that would stain your teeth and have you wanting more.  In fact, I did have seconds, it was that good, and I knew that I was bending the rules.

The last wine of the tasting was the Korbin Kameron Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve Mount Veeder Napa Valley Estate Grown 2016.  As you may notice, that while it is still an Estate Grown wine, this part of their estate has crossed the border and carries the Napa Valley sub-region of Mount Veeder AVA.  This reserve wine was aged for eighteen months, but it is entirely made with new French Oak barrels and about sixty cases were produced.  This wine was stellar, big and chewy, with delightful tannins even five years later and a nice long finish of terroir; a big selling point for me.  While amazing now, if you have the patience, a ten-year rest in the cellar would be well worth the wait.