Alcohol: 14.5%
Grape(s): Cabernet Sauvignon 88%, Cabernet Franc 7%, Petit Verdot 5%
Localization: Napa Valley, California, USA
Tasting Notes: Filled with incense, blonde tobacco, blue plum, and rose petal. Sculpted, refined and very well balanced, its finish is long and polished.
Notes: A very wet winter and spring, seasonal rainfall was twice the historical average. With soil water reserves full and warm temperatures in May and June, vines grew quickly and luxuriantly. Several significant heat waves were recorded in June, July, August, and September with a record-breaking 112 F on September 1st.
Ripening was fast and homogenous. The severe heat wave before harvest induced significant crop loss. To maintain quality, fruit selection was critical and resulted in our smallest vintage since 1988.
97 Points - Wine Advocate: There was about 50% of a normal crop this year for the 2017 Dominus, due to strict selection. Grapes were harvested from September 21 to October 3 and the wine was bottled in June 2019. This year the blend is 88% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% Cabernet Franc and 5% Petit Verdot, aged in 40% new French oak barrels. Very deep purple-black in color, it sashays nonchalantly out of the glass with graceful notions of potpourri, forest floor, crushed rocks, Ceylon tea and licorice with a core of black currant cordial, chocolate-covered cherries, mulberries and preserved plums plus a waft of garrigue. Full-bodied, the palate has a beautifully impactful, wonderfully quiet intensity of black and blue fruits with loads of floral and spicy sparks, framed by firm yet plush tannins, finishing with long-lasting earthy notes.
The Domain: In the late 1960s, while attending the University of California at Davis, Christian Moueix fell in love with the Napa Valley and its wines. Son of Jean-Pierre Moueix, the famed wine merchant and producer from Libourne, France, Moueix returned home in 1970 to manage the family vineyards, including Chateaux Petrus, La Fleur-Petrus, Trotanoy in Pomerol and Magdelaine in Saint Emilion.
His love of Napa Valley lingered and in 1981, he discovered the historic Napanook vineyard, a 124-acre site west of Yountville that had been the source of fruit for some of the finest Napa Valley wines of the 1940s and 1950s. In 1982, Moueix entered into a partnership to develop the vineyard and, in 1995, became its sole owner. He chose the name 'Dominus' or 'Lord of the Estate' in Latin to underscore his longstanding commitment to stewardship of the land.
