Favia, Cerro Sur - Napa Valley 2014

Favia, Cerro Sur - Napa Valley 2014

Favia Winery was founded in 2001 as a partnership between Annie Favia and her husband Andy Erickson. Annie is a passionate viticulturist and a true nature lover whereas Andy is a highly regarded winemaker in Napa who serves as a consultant for prominent wineries including Screaming Eagle, Dalla Valle, Harlan, and Staglin, among others. Located in Coombsville, Napa Valley, their philosophy is straightforward: crafting soulful wines that genuinely reflect the unique character of the vineyards they originate from.

Rancho Chimiles, the classic California ranch high in the mountains east of Coombsville, is the home of the Cabernet Franc at the core of our perennially impressive blended red wine, Cerro Sur. These old vines, in this very special terroir, produce a wine of singular character, aromatic enthusiasm, and fresh, focused flavors. After careful sorting, the grapes are carefully monitored through fermentation and maceration, giving the wine a fine and a narrow focus. This is followed by 22 months of aging in 50% new French oak barrels, and bottling without fining or filtration, giving the wine a depth and generosity that is incredibly appealing and age worthy.

The 2014 vintage

Weather conditions

2014 was a compelling season, with drought conditions but fairly mild temperatures, leading to wines with great intensity, vibrancy, and persistence. While total rainfall for the season was near normal, the bulk of this precipitation came in the winter months of December through February, with almost no rain in the spring. This meant the soils were not fully charged when the season began, which led to low to medium vigor in the vines.
A dry, mild summer meant that stress levels in the vineyard remained moderate. The cool temperatures persisted into the fall, which gave an extended season.

Wines from 2014 were restrained, and certainly not showy, in their youth. They have aged very well, and nearly a decade in are open and expressive, and still with the balance and grace of the vintage

Tasting notes

The driving force of the 2014 vintage is the combination of density, freshness, and balance. The most recent offering of Cerro Sur shows lively energy and notes of bing cherry, plum clafoutis, black tea and orange oil. The generosity of the wine is persistent; deeply layered, it opens to flavors of cinnamon, lavender, cocoa, cardamom, and candied ginger. This flavor intensity carries through on the finish. A complex wine with a long life ahead of it.