Fortunate Son The Diplomat 2019
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James
Suckling -
Jeb
Dunnuck -
Robert
Parker
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
A dark and rich wine sourced from small, family vineyards. Aged for 24-30 months in the finest French oak barrique. The stave wood is hand-selected for ultra-tight grain, then air dried for three years before being made into barrels.
Blend: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petite Sirah
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A full and layered red with lots of plums and chocolate with dark chocolate and crushed stones. Full and layered. From old dry-farmed, head-pruned merlot and cabernet sauvignon vines, all Calistoga. From the owner of Napa’s Hundred Acre winery.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The Merlot-dominated 2019 The Diplomat comes from a handful of sites and would give a great Pomerol a run for its money with its darker red and black fruits, smoky herbs, and earthy goodness on the nose. These carry to a full-bodied, rounded, opulent 2019 with sweet, building tannins and a great finish. Give it a few years.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Riper and substantially more expressive than the 2018, Fortunate Son's 2019 Red Wine The Diplomat is a plush, luscious wine, laden with black cherries, mocha and loam notes. It's full-bodied, rich, velvety and supple, with a lingering finish. Like the previous vintage, it's mainly Cabernet Sauvignon, with a fair whack of Merlot.
Fortunate Son is the culmination of more than two decades searching for small jewel vineyards and the fruit from them, handcrafted in the same,meticulous way as Hundred Acre. The 2018vintage of Fortunate Son was made at HundredAcre’s underground winery: The RING. In the future, Fortunate Son will be crafted at our new winery: The Fortunate Son Winery at the Historic David Fulton Vineyard Established in 1860.These wines are all brooding, elegant weapons,seductive and haunting, they will get your full attention and your love and become an integral part of your cellar’s strength.
One of the world’s most classic and popular styles of red wine, Bordeaux-inspired blends have spread from their homeland in France to nearly every corner of the New World. Typically based on either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, the best of these are densely hued, fragrant, full of fruit and boast a structure that begs for cellar time. Somm Secret—Blends from Bordeaux are generally earthier compared to those from the New World, which tend to be fruit-dominant.
St. Helena is in the heart of the Napa Valley, nestled between Calistoga to the north and Rutherford on its southern border. On its western side, the Mayacamas Mountains guard it from the cooling effects of the Pacific Ocean; to its east stand the Vaca Mountains. In conjunction, these mountain ranges serve to lock in summer daytime heat. But in the evening, cool air from the San Pablo Bay funnels up through the valley, creating very chilly nights. It isn’t uncommon for temperatures to drop 50 degrees, a shift that promotes a balance of sugar ripeness and acidity in wine grapes.
St. Helena contains a plethora of different soil types in a small area, which have been enhanced over centuries by rain runoff from both mountain ranges. Its vineyards cover a variety of terrain, spreading across the bucolic valley floor and its benchlands.
These ideal topographic and climatic growing conditions easily caught the attention of early winemaking pioneers. In fact, St. Helena is the birthplace of Napa Valley’s commercial wine industry. Dr. Crane founded his cellar in 1859, David Fulton in 1860 and Charles Krug in 1861.
Today there are no less than 400 separate vineyards planted within the 12,000 acres that make up the St. Helena appellation.
Revered most for its red wines based on Bordeaux varieties, namely Cabernet Sauvignon, the St. Helena appellation is also a source of superior Syrah, Zinfandel and Sauvignon blanc.