Cosentino The Poet spotlight
Jaton B Gunter tastes the 2021 Cosentino The Poet Meritage on camera in this Wine Wednesday film of the exact Napa Valley bottle.
The market on this bottle
Wine-Searcher tracks this 2021 Cosentino Winery The Poet Meritage, Napa Valley across the open market. Their published U.S. low is $29.47 and the average is $40.18. Our slash is $29.00.
2021 Cosentino Winery The Poet Meritage, Napa Valley
Mitch Cosentino's original American Meritage, black and blue fruit with cedar, a 2021 you can open at thirty dollars.
The 2021 Poet is Napa Valley Meritage: blackberry, currant, raspberry, and blueberry over cedar, leather, and vanilla, now $29.
The blend that taught America the word Meritage
Mitch Cosentino released The Poet as America's first designated and licensed Meritage in 1989. The 2021 still carries that Bordeaux-blend brief: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Malbec, and Petit Verdot from Napa Valley. The house note is black and blue fruit, cedar, leather, vanilla, then nutmeg, peppercorn, and cinnamon on layered tannin. Drink now through 2030. This is the bottle that argues a flagship blend can still be a Tuesday steak wine.
The house
Cosentino's first harvest was 1980. The Poet made Meritage a legal American word. The brand now sits with Foley Family Wines.
The wine
Cabernet-led Napa blend with Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Malbec, and Petit Verdot. Cedar, leather, vanilla around black and blue fruit.
The vintage
2021 in Napa gave ripe fruit and a tannic frame that still wants a decant. The house says now through 2030.
The drinker
Blackberry and cedar first. Decant 45 minutes. Serve 60 to 64 F. Short ribs or a thick-cut steak.
Black and blue fruit, then cedar and baking spice
The winery opens on luscious black and cool blue fruit, then earthy cedar, leather, spice, and a soft vanilla. Blackberry, currant, raspberry, and blueberry sit in the middle. Nutmeg, peppercorn, and cinnamon show the acidity and layered tannin on the close.
A concentrated Napa red year. The Poet came in fruit-forward with enough tannin for a steak and a few years in bottle.
Blackberry, currant, raspberry, blueberry, cedar, leather, vanilla.
Medium-plus body, layered tannin, baking-spice acidity, Napa Meritage frame.
Nutmeg, peppercorn, cinnamon. Decant 45 minutes. Serve 60 to 64 F.
Five grapes, one Poet
The Poet is Cosentino's Meritage: Cabernet Sauvignon for cassis and structure, Merlot for mid-palate, Cabernet Franc for perfume, Malbec for spice, Petit Verdot for tannin and color. The house still ferments and ages the lots to keep cedar and vanilla in support of black and blue fruit, not on top of it. That is blending as the original argument, not a leftover bin.
Mitch Cosentino made his first wines in a Modesto warehouse in 1980 and moved the cellar to Yountville by 1989, the year The Poet appeared.
Serve 60 to 64 F. A 45-minute decant lets cedar and blueberry settle into one line.
The first licensed American Meritage
Bordeaux is a place. Meritage is the American word Cosentino helped make legal, merit plus heritage.
In 1989 Cosentino released The Poet as one of America's first designated and licensed Meritage wines. Hundreds of houses followed.
The winery sat on Highway 29 in Yountville for decades. Ownership moved through Vintage Wine Estates and, later, Foley Family Wines. The Poet kept the name.
This 2021 is that flagship blend at a table price. Napa fruit, Bordeaux logic, no trophy speech.
Give it beef and a little glaze
Layered tannin wants short ribs or a thick steak. Cedar and blackberry lock into char and reduction.
Two plates. One pot of short ribs. One butter-basted steak. Both can take The Poet's tannin.
Decant 45 minutes. Serve 60 to 64 F. Use large stems. Air is for cedar and the blue-fruit close.
Red-Wine-Braised Short Ribs with Mashed Potatoes
A slow braise, glossy sauce, and mashed potatoes. Meritage's classic landing.
Why it works: Beef richness meets layered tannin, while thyme and reduced wine echo dark fruit and cedar.
View Recipe for red-wine-braised short ribs with mashed potatoes (opens in a new tab)
Pan-Seared Butter-Basted Thick-Cut Steak
A thick steak, butter, and a hot pan. The Tuesday plate this blend was built for.
Why it works: Char and fat soften the tannin. Pepper and browned butter echo cedar and spice.
View Recipe for pan-seared butter-basted thick-cut steak (opens in a new tab)Put The Poet in the cart
America's first licensed Meritage, Napa 2021. Thirty dollars against a $55 typical retail.
Put it in the cart. This is the Cosentino bottle for a table that wants a steak wine with a real name.
