Jax Vineyards Y3 Taureau Red 2013
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Parker
Robert
Product Details
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Blend: 45% Merlot, 25% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Syrah, 10% Zinfandel
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2013 Proprietary Red Blend Y3 Taureau is a blend of 45% Merlot, 25% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Syrah and 10% Zinfandel, all coming from of various sectors of Napa, ranging from Oak Knoll in the south, to Calistoga in the north. A beautifully sexy wine, with a dense purple color, big sweet kiss of blackberry and cassis liqueur, licorice and spice followed by lush, heady, full-bodied flavors that caress the palate. A beautifully rich, concentrated, irresistible style of wine to drink casually or with serious cuisine. The label is a bit wacky, but the wine certainly isn’t.
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Brother and sister team, Trent and Kimberly Jackson collaborated with their vintner “green thumb” father to found their first label in 1996. Over time the two identified their unique niche among next generation wine enthusiasts. Outliers from the dominating short list of old school napa wineries, the two saw an opportunity to buck the “en vogue” winemaking style of their day to focus on the unique terroir of their family vineyard. After all, “change comes first at a small scale driven by the smaller more nimble producers.”
Soon after, cult Winemaker Kirk Venge was recruited to create balanced wines reflecting varietal character and a sense of place. Passionate about our vineyard site, integral to our clone and root stalk selections, and now 15 years in, Kirk has reinforced their instinct that focus should always be on “sense of place” to understand the nuances that allow us to make great wine.
To differentiate from their small lot single vineyard Jax line, they launched “Y3” to scale and offer more “true to varietal” wines from various AVAs (spanning Napa and Sonoma). The “Y3” symbol was the cattle symbol used on their grandparents’ cattle ranch, Yarrayne. The “3” represents three generations of land tilling entrepreneurs.
In 2013, the siblings recruited a third partner, Dan Parrott, a no nonsense individual with a laser focus on balanced wines (historically working in Italian import houses) and a true burgundian aficianado. Dan keeps the sibling rivalry in check and runs Jax like a well oiled machine.
Undoubtedly proving its merit over and over, Napa Valley is a now a leading force in the world of prestigious red wine regions. Though Cabernet Sauvignon dominates Napa Valley, other red varieties certainly thrive here. Important but often overlooked include Merlot and other Bordeaux varieties well-regarded on their own as well as for their blending capacities. Very old vine Zinfandel represents an important historical stronghold for the region and Pinot noir is produced in the cooler southern parts, close to the San Pablo Bay.
Perfectly situated running north to south, the valley acts as a corridor, pulling cool, moist air up from the San Pablo Bay in the evenings during the hot days of the growing season, which leads to even and slow grape ripening. Furthermore the valley claims over 100 soil variations including layers of volcanic, gravel, sand and silt—a combination excellent for world-class red wine production.