Timeless 2017 by Silver Oak Vineyards

Silver Oak comes close to being a synonym for California Cabernet. Launched in the early 1970s, the producer’s two Cabs, one from Napa Valley, the other from Sonoma’s Alexander Valley, earned cellar space quickly for impressive age ability. The iconic water tower on Silver Oak’s Oakville property, depicted on the label, is recognized worldwide. Even the smell of the wine is memorable, with hints of vanilla and coconut from the American oak barrels founders Ray Duncan and Justin Meyer chose for aging their Cabernets.

Silver Oak has released its first brand since it branched out with Twomey two decades ago, Timeless Napa Valley. The wine is a tribute to the late Ray Duncan. The song “Timeless,” printed on the back label, was co-written by Ray’s son David, now chairman and CEO, for the elder Duncan’s 85th birthday. It is an exploration of terroir akin to that of a single-vineyard Bordeaux blend. It’s also out in front of the welcome evolution we’re seeing among top California Bordeaux-style producers meaning the ability to achieve generous and complex fruit flavours while restraining ripeness, so vibrant acidity holds interest on the palate. It has ditched American oak in favour of French. “We’re not purists on American oak,” says David Duncan. “Just for Silver Oak! Using French oak was a great choice to make a distinct wine inspired by the greatest wines and to make it distinct and apart from Silver Oak.”

The inaugural 2017 Timeless Napa Valley, from winemaker Nate Weis, is a complex, seamless beauty, unfolding endlessly with high-toned aromas of lavender, tobacco, forest, sage, anise, exotic spice, pepper and espresso under dusty red berries. With lovely tension across the palate, flavours evolve from red cherry and plum to darker fruit, with a pronounced and welcome savoury side and grippy but tamed tannins. It has that hallmark of great wine, a sense of the myriad characteristics a place conferred in a moment of time while maintaining a structure that will let the wine age for many years.

Remarkably, for all of that, it shares the elder Duncan’s art of never taking himself too seriously. David Duncan reports, “Ray always put ice cubes in his Twomey Sauvignon Blanc. No one judged him. We toasted his life shortly after he passed, with a glass of Sauvignon Blanc on ice.”