Duckhorn The Discussion 2020 3L Double Magnum

Breaking from Duckhorn’s focus on varietally labeled wines, Renee Ary blends The Discussion based on favored estate parcels. In 2016, it’s 55 percent cabernet sauvignon, 43 percent merlot and one percent each of franc and petit verdot. Given enough time to evolve past the almost peachy ripeness of its fruit and the significant presence of oak (it spends 18 months in new French oak barrels, then another six months in neutral barrels), the wine feels complete and completely rich. It has none of the stodginess common to cabernet, instead presenting a powerful structure, intense and gracious in its bitter-chocolate tannins. All the elements point in an upward trajectory, a path they should follow with extended bottle age.