T. Berkley Wines spotlight
The market on this bottle
Wine-Searcher tracks this 2022 T. Berkley Thalia Vineyard Cabernet Franc Knights Valley across the open market. Their published U.S. low is $50.18 and the average is $50.18. Our slash is $50.00.
2022 T. Berkley Thalia Vineyard Cabernet Franc Knights Valley, USA
Taylor Berkley Boydstun's Thalia Vineyard Cabernet Franc, violet and wild blueberry from Knights Valley, a 2022 at fifty dollars.
The 2022 is 100 percent Cabernet Franc from Thalia Vineyard in Knights Valley: raspberry, dry cocoa, violet, and black pepper, now $50.
A Knights Valley monopole, olive trees around the Franc
Thalia is three acres of organically farmed Cabernet Franc in the hills above Calistoga, Knights Valley AVA, exclusive to T. Berkley since 2017. Wine Enthusiast's Tom Capo scored the 2022 at 95 and wrote best from 2030 to 2040. Suckling called it handsome, chocolaty, and full. Fifty dollars is the winery number for 175 cases.
The house
Boydstun built T. Berkley around Cabernet Franc. Thalia has been in the program since 2017 and now stands as a single-vineyard bottling.
The wine
Destemmed, native yeast, small-lot ferment, French oak and concrete. 13.0% ABV. 175 cases.
The scores
Wine Enthusiast 95. James Suckling 92. Capo wants a cellar. Suckling would drink it.
The drinker
Decant 30 to 45 minutes if opening now. Grilled flank steak with chimichurri, or balsamic roasted vegetables and goat cheese.
Violet and raspberry, then mint, coffee, and grip
Capo found raspberries, dry cocoa, violets, and black pepper, then powerful tannins with plum, coffee, mint, and tobacco. The house note adds wild blueberry, sage, sandalwood, and dusty, peach-fuzz tannin.
A structured Knights Valley Franc year. Blue fruit is the vineyard's signature. The tannins are not a weeknight accident. Decant, or wait.
Raspberry, violet, wild blueberry, dry cocoa, black pepper, sage, sandalwood.
Powerful tannin, 13.0% ABV, dusty grip, French oak and concrete.
Mint, coffee, tobacco. Decant 30 to 45 minutes. Serve 60 to 64 F.
Destemmed, native yeast, oak then concrete
On the T. Berkley sheet Thalia is destemmed, fermented in small lots with native yeast, then raised in French oak and finished in concrete. The goal is site-expressive Cabernet Franc with tannin that can age.
Sheila Lagios farms the three-acre jewel organically, olive trees around the vines. Boydstun has taken the fruit exclusively since 2017.
175 cases. Serve near 62 F. If you open it this year, give it a real decant. Capo's window starts in 2030.
From Ophelia's backbone to a vineyard label
Thalia first fed the house rosé and the Franc program. The single-vineyard debut is the overdue chapter.
Boydstun's Loire brief is the same across the single-vineyard series: grower, site, grape, get out of the way.
Knights Valley sits in the hills above Calistoga, warmer than the mountain sites, still a Franc place in this cellar.
This 2022 is the current Thalia bottling: 175 cases, 95 points, the winery's own fifty-dollar number.
Chimichurri steak and balsamic vegetables
Thalia's herbs, cocoa, and tannin want grilled meat and a goat-cheese vegetable plate. Chimichurri flank steak and balsamic roasted winter vegetables are the live pairing.
Two plates. One chimichurri flank steak. One balsamic roasted vegetable plate with goat cheese. Both can take Thalia tannin.
Decant 30 to 45 minutes, or 60 minutes if you want the tannins fully open. Serve 60 to 64 F.
Grilled Flank Steak with Chimichurri Sauce
Char, herbs, and a sauce that matches Thalia's sage and pepper.
Why it works: Chimichurri echoes mint, sage, and black pepper. Steak fat meets powerful tannin.
View Recipe for chimichurri flank steak (opens in a new tab)
Balsamic Roasted Winter Vegetables with Goat Cheese
Roasted roots, balsamic, goat cheese, a meatless plate for structured Franc.
Why it works: Balsamic and goat cheese pull cocoa and violet forward. The wine's acidity keeps the plate alive.
View Recipe for balsamic roasted vegetables (opens in a new tab)Put this Knights Valley Franc in the cart
Wine Enthusiast 95. Thalia Vineyard, 175 cases. Fifty dollars.
Put it in the cart. This is T. Berkley's Knights Valley Franc, priced at the winery number.
