Argot Cabernet Sugar Loaf Vineyard 2019

Parker 97+pts, “A stunning, true-blue Napa blockbuster with its own very evocative signature, this comes highly recommended!”

This wine blew my mind. Justin Harmon is making some of the finest, small production single vineyard wines in California. Everything I taste pushes me to taste others and today’s Cab is the cherry on the top. Harmon Grew up in Chicago with no family interest in wine. Came to wine as a consumer, fell in love, began devouring all things wine. Chemical engineer by education, drawn to the process. Began making wine in my basement in Chicago. Started with a concentrate kit, grew to flash-frozen grapes, brought to Chicago by rail car from Napa, fermented in garbage cans, pressed through nylon bags to carboy. He came to California in 2005 and worked a couple of harvests and in 2007 bought his first ton of grapes and began Argot.

Argot’ refers to a shared language, borne from, and reinforcing the intimacy associated with tight-knit groups, whom are brought together by their common interests and shared histories. Each significant relationship in life gives rise to an ‘argot’ among the members who define it. The deeper the bond, and longer its history, this argot’s vocabulary becomes more personal, allowing it to strengthen and enhance the dynamic. When opening a bottle of wine, so too is opened the flow of conversation and ability to connect. Throughout human history wine has been used for worship, celebration, mourning and, more simply, sharing life.

Jeb Dunnuck commented “If you haven’t heard of Justin Harmon, you should write that name down. Bravo, sir.” The Cab I bring to you is the 2019 Argot Cabernet Sugar Loaf Vineyard. Sugar Loaf is located south-eastern foothills of Napa. The wine was made from 1 acre called ‘Block6’ described as a ferociously rocky, fiercely steep hillside. It is one of the last harvests in all of Napa. With the greatness of the 2019 vintage, the quality of Cabernet from this vineyard was absolutely spectacular allowing for prefect ripeness and enough yield to make this world class Cabernet. Only 175 cases were produced, hard-core Napa Cab of the highest order.