Darms Lane scores big with this rich, complex young Cabernet, which comes from a vineyard in the cool Oak Knoll region. The blackberry and cherry flavors, accented with red currants, licorice, cocoa, mushu plum sauce and sweet buttered cinnamon toast, are absolutely delicious. More impressive is the tannin-acid structure, which hits no wrong notes. A real beauty…
— S.H.
(12/31/2011)
Darms Lane is one of those wineries that travels under the radar, but it really is worthy of your attention. With this superb 2009 Cab from their Oak Knoll vineyard, they’re continuing a string of successful bottlings with prices that have held steady for many years. The wine is rich, smooth and tannic, with a deep core of blackberry and currant. Dramatic now, it…
— S.H.
(12/31/2012)
This is an inaugural wine made from a vineyard in the southerly Oak Knoll District of Napa Valley. It shows a cooler-climate influence, or perhaps earlier-picked grapes, in the crispness and slight astringency that accompanies complex black currant, black cherry and cedar flavors. Very fine and balanced. Now through 2012.
— S.H.
(6/1/2009)
Made in a dry, tart, minerally style, this is the kind of Chardonnay you can call Chablisian. It has an intricate structure of citrus and apricot fruit, and the oak application is modest but tasteful, providing hints of buttered toast. Understated but elegant, it’s a fine, bracing Chardonnay to drink now.
— S.H.
(5/1/2011)
A little ungainly now due to the tannins, which are hard and overpower the fruit. Not quite up there with the fine 2005, but still a very good Cabernet Sauvignon, with pleasant blackberry, currant and cedar flavors. The vineyard is in the southerly Oak Knoll area.
— S.H.
(5/13/2010)
The vineyard is in the Oak Knoll District. The wine is dry and full-bodied, packed with ripe blackberries, black cherries and black currants, as well as toasty oak. A bit brusque in tannins at this young age, it should be cellared for a few years.
— S.H.
(5/1/2011)
Shows plenty of ripe pineapple, peach and pear flavors, enhanced with toasty vanilla and oak; rounded out with clean acidity. It’s solidly in the modern California style.
— S.H.
(6/1/2012)
Right out of the bottle, this Pinot smells grapy and winy, almost as though it were still fermenting. It’s young, rude and fresh, but very rich in cherries, with a pie-filling sweetness. Should be fine by this winter.
— S.H.
(6/1/2012)