The previous vintage was restless.
It strained against confinement in the barrel and splashed eagerly from the bottle once released. When winemaker Cheryl Lucido tried to hold it in check, the impatient 2012 took off, returning from San Francisco with a medal wrested from much more mature reds.
But the 2013 edition of Laujor’s cabernet sauvignon “Angelina’s Blend” turned out to be a much more timid wine. It burrowed into the oak, sheltering behind strapping tannins, refusing to budge. When Lucido finally coaxed the wine into bottles it determined to stay. It coiled up, finally throwing a tannic fit at the offer of a trip to that same San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition.
Once it became accustomed to its surroundings, however, the cabernet begin to regret its moody youth. The 2013 vintage began to settle into its destined role as one of Laujor’s signature wines.
“It has been improving dramatically in the last couple months,” Lucido observed. “It’s amazing how quickly things change in the bottle.”
The change in character encouraged Lucido to release Angelina’s Blend. Her willingness to wait out the wine rewards us with aromas of ripe black cherries, plush blackberries and bushels of plums, splitting from the sun. The promise is of a blushing, spirited wine, with waving cabernet sauvignon locks and lush cabernet franc roots.
Cabernet franc makes up just 8 percent of the blend — which is finished by a dash of petite sirah — but provides a boost to the earthy, savory undertones. Even on the nose, under the avalanche of bold fruit, hints of chocolate, grilled pepper, black licorice, quarried stone and dried tobacco leaves drift in.
These provided a welcome point of contention. When sipped, the wine tumbles headlong onto the palate, reveling in fresh dark cherry, bursting plum, more blackberries and a sweet edge like strawberries. Yet rolling in the big fruits are deeper flavors — cocoa powder, whole peppercorns and loam.
The heartier notes take hold, plunging the wine into darker realms. As the light dims, fundamental impressions loom — earth, cured tobacco, traces of smoke, pepper, the embers of a once stoked grill. The wine begins to slow down, to gather memories.
But this moment of contemplation is fleeting. Lucido loves big wines and the fruits persist, returning gleefully on the finish, trailing with it more of that soothing chocolate notion.
In the end, the 2013 Laujor cabernet sauvignon Angelina’s Blend is a joyride — bracing, exhilarating, challenging and intriguing. Not a bad debut for a once bashful blend.
“It’s really fun on the palate,” Lucido agreed.
Despite their differences, the 2013 almost matched the 2012 at harvest. The sugar levels, the balance — just about everything was spot on. She held in French oak barrels subjected to a heavy toast for 18 months, dividing the wine between new and two year old wood. Again, the process varied little from the previous vintage.
Lucido credits the intense toast seared into the oak for the wine’s unique vivacious yet brooding character.
“I feel like it adds complexity, adds a little richness and that cocoa finish,” she explained.
Yet it may just be the vintner’s experience that allowed the 2013 vintage to develop. Lucido was not thrown off by the wine’s unexpected coy turn in the barrel. She just stepped back at the first bottle tasting, when tannins still raged.
“I waited until that went away,” she said.
The result is a wine in a perfect spot — one at peace with its past, enjoying its present and looking toward an even more prosperous future.
Dave Faries can be reached at 900-2016
