Vineyard 29 estate spotlight
Chuck McMinn is on camera on the official Vineyard 29 channel, walking the St. Helena estate whose gravity-flow cellar bottles this Cru Cabernet.
2022 Vineyard 29 Cru Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley, USA
Keith Emerson's Cru Cabernet, hillside and valley-floor Napa in one glass, a 92-point 2022 you can open at forty dollars.
The 2022 Cru is 90 percent Cabernet Sauvignon with Petit Verdot, Malbec, Cabernet Franc, and Merlot: brambly blackberry, ripe blueberry, violet, mocha, and roasted coffee, now $40.
The house style from hillside and valley floor, not a second-label leftover
Cru is Vineyard 29's Napa Valley Cabernet, fruit from exceptional valley-floor and hillside vineyards, hand-crafted in the gravity-flow winery. Keith Emerson says it is all about making the wine in the vineyard. The 2022 is 90 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, 3 percent Petit Verdot, 3 percent Malbec, 2 percent Cabernet Franc, and 2 percent Merlot. Jeb Dunnuck 92. Vinous 90. This is the bottle that introduces the house at forty dollars.
The house
Chuck and Anne McMinn. Keith Emerson. Cru is the Napa Valley introduction to Vineyard 29's elegance and quality.
The wine
90% Cabernet Sauvignon with Petit Verdot, Malbec, Cabernet Franc, and Merlot. Fine-grain, thin-stave French oak. 14.6% ABV.
The scores
Jeb Dunnuck 92. Vinous 90. Red and black fruit, new leather, graphite, incense, chocolate.
The drinker
Decant 20 to 30 minutes. Serve 60 to 64 F. Seared steak or cocoa-dusted lamb.
Blackberry and blueberry, then leather and incense
The winery opens on brambly blackberry, ripe blueberry, and violet, with mocha and roasted coffee from fine-grain French oak. Jeb Dunnuck found beautiful red and black fruits, new leather, graphite, and floral incense, medium to full-bodied, round, textured, with fine tannins. Antonio Galloni found black cherry, plum, new leather, incense, and chocolate, forward and juicy.
The estate called 2022 a warmer Napa vintage that still delivered a surprisingly youthful, fresh, full-bodied Cru. Juicy on entry, rich and round, with an acid line and firm tannin built to age over a decade.
Blackberry, blueberry, violet, black cherry, plum, mocha, roasted coffee, floral incense.
Medium to full, round, 14.6% ABV, fine tannin, thin-stave French oak.
Graphite, leather, chocolate. Decant 20 to 30 minutes. Serve 60 to 64 F.
Site selection first, then the gravity-flow cellar
Keith Emerson describes Cru as vineyard work: site selection, crop yield, and picking decisions made with the final blend in mind. Fruit comes from valley-floor and hillside vineyards throughout Napa Valley, then the gravity-flow cellar. The 2022 is 90 percent Cabernet Sauvignon with small portions of Petit Verdot, Malbec, Cabernet Franc, and Merlot. Fine-grain, thin-stave French oak supplies mocha and roasted coffee without burying blackberry and violet.
Cru is crafted to drink on release and still age over a decade. The 2022 already has immediacy. It also has tannin and acid for a cellar.
Decant 20 to 30 minutes. Serve 60 to 64 F. This is the Vineyard 29 bottle for a weeknight steak.
The introduction to a St. Helena house
While the estate wines speak for Aida and 29 Estate, Cru is Vineyard 29's reading of Napa Valley as a whole.
Chuck and Anne McMinn built the modern St. Helena estate after 2000. The gravity-flow winery is the house tool, not a tourist prop.
Keith Emerson wants Cru to depict the best characteristics of the region: elegance, quality, and a Cabernet you can actually open.
The 2022 is that idea at forty dollars. Put it on a steak. Do not wait for a speech.
Seared steak, then cocoa-dusted lamb
Blackberry, mocha, and fine tannin want char and a little fat. Steak is the weeknight plate. Lamb is the richer night.
Two plates. One ribeye. One grilled lamb chop.
Decant 20 to 30 minutes. Serve 60 to 64 F.
Perfect Pan-Seared Steaks
A hard crust, coarse salt, pan juices. Cru at the steak table.
Why it works: Beef fat meets fine tannin while char pulls blackberry and mocha forward.
View Recipe for Perfect Pan-Seared Steaks (opens in a new tab)
Grilled Lamb Chops with Garlic and Rosemary
Char, herb, and lamb fat. The second Cru night.
Why it works: Rosemary echoes incense and graphite. Lamb fat softens the oak.
View Recipe for grilled lamb chops with garlic and rosemary (opens in a new tab)Put Cru in the cart
Keith Emerson, Jeb Dunnuck 92, the Vineyard 29 Napa Cabernet you can open. Forty dollars.
Put it in the cart. This is Cru, the house style, not a leftover second label.
