Fait-Main Cabernets 2021. 2-bottle, Special packaging.
Beckstoffer Las Piedras Vineyard- 100 points
Located at the foot of Spring Mountain in St. Helena, the Beckstoffer Las Piedras Vineyard marks the first site ever produced by Fait-Main. The foreign outcrop of stony, tough soil in the middle of a typically soft and rich valley floor, presents more like Bordeaux than St. Helena. For French-born winemaker Benoit Touquette, it was this connection to home that inspired him to create his own label.
Tracing its roots back to the original Mexican land grants, Las Piedras vineyard is thought to be the first planted in what is now the St. Helena AVA. One of the oldest vineyards in California, it also represents the first heritage site owned and farmed by the Beckstoffer family since 1983, at which time it was replanted to two clones of Cabernet Sauvignon.
Farm workers aptly named the vineyard Las Piedras, which translates to the stones in Spanish. The richly layered palate that each vintage has expressed thus far, shows the site’s compelling interplay of fruit and structure, bound together with graceful minerality.
Tierra Roja Vineyard- 98+ points
Benoit connected with the Tierra Roja Vineyard through a chain of friendships, patiently nurtured over time. This historic site on the east side of Oakville is neighbored by Dalla Valle, Rudd, and Screaming Eagle, but until now, it has been available only to the grower herself – Linda Neal – and one other winery.
Originally planted to vine in the 1920s by the Denatale family, the property came into its own under Linda Neal’s stewardship. Linda and her family ran a Napa Valley vineyard management company for many years, and she terraced the steep, sloping hillsides and replanted with Cabernet Sauvignon in the late ‘80s. The red volcanic soils that inspire the vineyard’s name are rich in iron and rock, producing intense dark fruit with long, silky tannins.
