2010 | Verite | La Muse

A deep, rich, black cherry color in the glass opens with intriguing notes of licorice and white pepper on the nose. Red fruits and spice dance on the palate while licorice and black cherry linger,leading to a very long finish. Discreet tannins and a lively minerality indicate a wine with great aging potential.

Reviews:

• Wine Advocate: The 2010 La Muse (14.5% alcohol) is a blend of 84% Merlot, 13% Cabernet Franc and 3% Cabernet Sauvignon. One of the more soft, opulent, precocious wines I have tasted from this estate, it exhibits abundant notes of spicy oak, plum, Asian soy, new saddle leather, barrique, black cherries and black currants. Round and generous with considerable fat and succulence, it can be drunk in 2-3 years or cellared for 15-20.

• Vinous: An exotic, nuanced beauty, the 2010 La Muse offers up an exotic concoction of white truffle, cassis, cloves. Captivating and totally beguiling, the 2010 takes over all of the senses and never lets up. A rush of blue and black-hued fruit flows through to the enveloping, deeply resonant finish. The 2010 shuts down in the glass, so it is best left alone in bottle for a number of years. What a gorgeous wine this is, especially if readers can be patient.

Producer Information

Vérité Winery is a wine producer based in Sonoma County in California. It is most famous for its three Bordeaux-styled blends: La Muse, La Joie, and Le Désir, which have all received 100-point scores from American wine critic Robert Parker over several vintages. Winemaker Pierre Seillan got his start working with Bordeaux varieties at his family's estate in Armagnac. Before moving to the United States, he worked at Château de Targé in Saumur-Champigny in the Loire Valley, and at several châteaux in Bordeaux. Upon meeting California wine pioneer Jess Jackson in the 1990s, Seillan was convinced to move to Sonoma to make Bordeaux blend wines. Vérité sources fruit from the Alexander Valley, Bennett Valley, Knights Valley and Chalk Hill AVAs in Sonoma County. This range of sites provides more than 40 different types of soil, a range of altitudes and several different mesoclimates. Each vineyard block is vinified separately before a final blend for each wine is created. In a slight departure from the standard approach, Seillan made a 100 percent Tannat from Alexander Mountain Estate (which sits on the western Mayacamas Mountains overlooking the Alexander Valley) in 2010, although it appears this wine was a one-off. The three Vérité blends are dominated by a different Bordeaux variety. La Muse is Merlot-based, La Joie is Cabernet Sauvignon-based, and Le Désir is primarily Cabernet Franc. Due to the wines' success with the press, they are only available through a mailing list. The wines are still made by Seillan, although he is now joined by his daughter, Hélène, who has taken over assistant winemaker duties. Jess Jackson died in 2011.

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