Wine Last Sold on: September 28, 2012
Hagafen Cellars
Featured Wine:
2009 Don Ernesto's Napa Crescendo Red Table Wine
| Varietal: | Red Blend |
| Vineyard: | Hagafen Estate Vineyard |
| Region: | California: Napa Valley |
| Avg. Price: | $24.00 |
| Wine Spies: | $18.99 |
website
Mission Codename: Rhapsody in Red
- Operative
- Agent Red
- Objective
- Return to Hagafan Cellars, a Napa Valley gem found along the Silverado Trail in the Napa Valley. Taste their budget-minded Napa Valley Red Wine. If the wine is exceptional, secure an allocation for our growing base of Hagafen-loving Operatives.
- Mission Status
- Accomplished!
- Winemaker
- Ernie Weir
Final Assessment
Today’s lovely, budget-friendly 2009 Don Ernesto’s Napa Valley Crescendo Red Table Wine is a rich, dark, complex wine with more character than might be expected for a wine of under $19. Especially considering that the wine was made by Napa Valley winemaker, Ernie Weir, of Hagafen Cellars fame.
We have really grown to love Hagafen wines and when we learned of Ernie’s Don Ernesto label, we had high hopes for its lower-priced wines. We were not disappointed. Today’s Red Table wine delivers a rich, dark and pleasing blend that we found pairs best with dark, grilled meats or a hearty meat lasagne.
Enjoy this wine, now, but lay a few bottles down for the next few years for what we presume will be an even more delightful drinking experience.
Tasting Profile
Perfect dark ruby hues with perfectly even coloration from clear core, right out to the edge of the glass. Spin the wine and watch as tall, skinny tears move slowly down the glass.
A tad shy, at first, this wine really springs to life with smoky dark cherry, cassis, darkly toasted oak and sweet tobacco. The more you swirl, the more that additional aromas emerge, including hard leather, cocoa dust, sweet baking spice, toasty vanilla and pencil shavings.
Soft and round as the wine enters the palate, it gains a little weight at the mid-palate, becoming softly grippy as supple tannins give the wine a softly elegant if slightly grippy feel.
Dark, smoky black cherry and overripe blackberry take the lead. These are followed by braised black plum, dried brown tobacco leaf, dark oak, baking spice, black pepper and caramelized sugar.
Medium in length, with dark fruit and dark tobacco, spice and oak diminishing in even proportion to one another. At the very end, a soft dryness is accompanied by the flavor of subtle graphite.
What the Winery Says
2009 Don Ernesto Crescendo! Red Table Wine
“Good wine shouldn’t be complicated. Like a rainbow or a puppy or a beautiful sunset, wine should make you feel happy to be alive and enjoying life surrounded by friends. Don Ernesto is just that kind of fun . . . in a bottle”
- Don Ernesto
Varietal Makeup
Cabernet Sauvignon based Red Blend
Awards
“Gold Medal – West Coast Wine Competition; Gold Medal – International Eastern Wine Competition”
About the Winery
Hagafen Cellars is located in the Napa Valley, in the heart of California’s premier wine grape region. Less than a mile south of the famed Stags leap District and twenty yards from the Oak Knoll District–Napa’s newest and most exciting of American Viticultural Areas–our well-drained soil is ideal for the growth and production of ripe and rich, intensely fruity small lot estate bottled wines. Owned and operated by Irit and Ernie Weir, the winery was founded in 1979, and the first commercially released vintage was harvested in 1980. In the ensuing years, we have grown from a small partnership producing wine with grapes from Winery Lake Vineyard, then owned by Rene DiRosa, to a well-established wine company whose wines are distributed throughout North America and overseas. Since 1980 our wines have been served on numerous occasions at the White House to visiting foreign dignitaries. The cornerstone of our lives are the Silverado Trail winery and tasting room and our two estate vineyards in the eastern benchland of the Napa Valley.
Ernie’s daily involvement in the two sides of wine production, grape growing and winemaking, ensures the superb quality of our wines. “Fine wine starts in the vineyard with careful vineyard management,” says Weir. “I strive to take maximum advantage of the Napa Valley’s natural geology and climate to produce the best wine varietals. I interfere as little as possible with the soil, creating a balance that minimizes the chemical and erosion impact by using modern farming techniques while maintaining the age-old wisdom of balance and the traditional values of conservation and land stewardship. Once harvest is completed, I undertake the second part of my job, winemaking. This presents an interesting challenge every time since each year the growing season and harvest are unique and different. I never seek to change what Nature has provided. My goal is to showcase the best that our land has produced.”
We look forward to meeting you here in Napa at our winery and tasting room on the Silverado Trail.
Family, Tradition, Excellence: Think Hagafen!
