November 4, 2007

2004 Paraduxx Napa Valley Red Wine


For the past few weeks I've been on a bit of a Duckhorn kick and I have to say it's been great and doesn't seem to be ending anytime soon considering I have an appointment at one of the Duckhorn vineyards in about a week. I love this wine. I had it the other night and it's probably my favorite out of the various bottles I've had recently. The 2004 Paraduxx is composed of 65% Zinfandel, 28% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 7% Merlot. It was picked a bit early for a harvest in Napa (Aug) and aged 18 months in oak (65% American/ 35% French). There is definitely an explosion of fruit on the nose - cherry, raspberry and a hint of vanilla. A little bit of heat on the nose. In the glass it's a very dark, inky wine with beautiful scarlet at the rim. Very intense in the mouth, very velvety and smooth with a nice finish. After some time in the glass I could taste more oak but it wasn't overly oaked by any means. It's an interesting blend and right up my alley. I love jammy Zins and together with the complexity and structure of Cabernet it's a beautiful thing. This is a wine meant to be drunk young or within a few years of release. After 1 glass I had this wine with a nice chopped up block of Gruyere cheese and it wasn't a perfect pairing but they complimented each other very nicely. This wine will hold a nice memory of relaxing in front of a great fire on a beautiful Fall evening with delicious wine and cheese. I'm very excited to try the 2005 in a week or so and had to hold myself back from buying it at my local shop last Friday. Seek this wine out.

Score: 9/ 10

Price: $40

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi there GK. Totally agree with you on the '04 Paraduxx, it's solid. Also, if you can somehow get your hands on the '04 Postmark Rector Creek I'd highly recommend doing so. We had it back in May at Paraduxx (and now have a bottle in our wine cellar). You can read our review here: http://www.uncork29.com/blog/2007/05/07/a-review-of-the-paraduxx-winetasting-experience/

Grape King said...

Thanks for the tip on the Postmark wines, Trevr. Hopefully they will have some bottles of the '05 that I can get my hands on! Great review on your site!