Julie Johnson of Tres Sabores Winery in Rutherford, Napa Valley, California was having a grand old time pouring wines and answering questions at The Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan.  The wine tastings at the shop are more casual and not like attending a lecture hall, so it is breezy and one cannot rely on a set patter or dialogue, especially when you may have six or eight people around a table, and not everyone is even on the same bottle tasting.  While it may appear to be anarchy or chaos, it really is a great way to learn, because you may have already tasted a wine, and something new was either questioned or brought up about the last wine, to let you absorb, and sometimes, you may even have to go back and retry a wine.

We then began trying the Tres Sabores Perspective Cabernet Sauvignon Rutherford 2019.  This is an estate wine and pure Cabernet Sauvignon. The estate is certified organic and they practice dry-farm techniques.  In the Initial Fermentation they use fifty percent wild yeast in small bins, and hand punch-down. The wine is aged for twenty-two-months in French Oak, of which thirty percent is new.  They limit the production to their best ten barrel, which generally breaks down to about three-hundred-bottles per barrel, so three-thousand-bottles total.  When I was learning about wines, the descriptors would say “this is a classic Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon.” This is a classic Rutherford wine.  A pretty garnet-red offering notes of black and red fruits, cedar and oak, and plenty of spices.  On the palate blackberry, dark plums, and cherry fruit, and vanilla intermingle with fine tannins in a big wine that finishes with a nice long finish of fruit and terroir.  It was drinking very easily in its youth, give it about ten years of maturity and I think it will be awesome.  

After the Cab, we followed with Tres Sabores Perspective Zinfandel Rutherford 2020.  This was a very interesting wine, but alas, I didn’t ask enough questions on this wine. This is another estate wine, actually Julie says the wine came from the vineyard in her front yard.  The entire estate is certified organic and they practice dry-farm techniques. This plot is hand harvested over a three-week period, as the clusters have to be inspected for ripeness.  The vines are forty-eight-years old.  I will venture to say that this wine undergoes Initial Fermentation in small bins with partial wild yeasts, especially since the fruit is harvest over three weeks.  Aged in oak, probably for nine months.  To me this was a very tasty wine, as it wasn’t a typical California Zin that is big and jammy, this was an elegant, almost genteel Zin.  This deep purple wine offered notes of red fruits, smoke, cedar, and pepper.  On the palate there were notes of raspberry and strawberry, pepper and spices, with tight tannins and excellent balance.  The wine finished with a nice medium count of terroir.  I think some aging would also expose more layers of supple fruit and spices.