Pym-Rae Tesseron Estate 2017
-
James
Suckling -
Robert
Parker
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
An intense and powerful wine, balanced with a beautiful freshness characteristic from Pym-Rae's terroir.
Blend: 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot
Professional Ratings
-
James Suckling
Rather rich, flamboyant and decadent with bright raspberries, mushrooms and bark. Full-bodied, yet very tight and refined, with firmness and length. Racy and fine for a 2017. No cabernet franc in the blend, just cabernet sauvignon and merlot. Drink after 2023.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Deep garnet-purple in color, the 2017 Pym-Rae leaps from the glass with bold notions of black cherries, mulberries, plum preserves and dark chocolate with an opulent undercurrent of Indian spices, potpourri, sandalwood and cinnamon stick. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is packed with rich, seductive black fruit preserves and an explosion of exotic spice sparks, framed by firm yet beautifully plush tannins and fantastic tension, finishing very long and achingly fragrant. Possessing loads more weight and mid-palate density than a lot of 2017s, this second showing is an absolute knock-out.
Other Vintages
2018-
Jeb
Dunnuck -
Robert
Parker -
James
Suckling
-
James
Suckling -
Robert
Parker -
Jeb
Dunnuck -
The Somm
Journal
The actor christened the vineyard with the middle names of his children “PYM” and “RAE”. Due to this touching story and in respect to the previous owners, the Tesserons have chosen to continue this name for the domain’s wine.
For a family owning vineyards of exceptional quality, a place of great reputation and potential was necessary. An obvious choice was Napa in California. But not just anywhere in the Valley.
The climate’s generous nature needed to be moderated by locally cool conditions: this meant a high-altitude vineyard. To produce deep and balanced wines, sedimentary soils were needed with historic marine deposits gradually evolved over millions of years. The Mount Veeder region provided all of this.
The vineyard had to be planted with Bordeaux varieties, the same that the family had experience with at Pontet-Canet. Finally, the vines had to be mature as only older plants have established a deep root system, allowing them to extract the terroir’s purest expression and minerality which will yield full and complex wines.
It is not the easiest land to cultivate, because certain areas are steep and precipitous, resulting in only a modest crop of grapes. It is a remote location, like an island of nature, in the middle of nowhere. And to reach it requires a determined effort.
Yet this is the land that chose us.