Description
Called Maverick Ranches, the debut 2020 is an enticingly gulp-able blend of lusciously ripe Cabernet Sauvignon and darker, sterner Petite Verdot (22% of the blend). It wowed us for not only the intensity and vividness of its fruit but also for its smooth, gorgeously round palate and surprisingly structured palate. Lovers of new wave Paso wines like Austin Hope and Daou Reserve, for example, will find a lot to love in the Hess Maverick Ranch’s lavish blackberry-like fruit and its broad, palate-coating chocolate-mocha, mint, vanilla and pipe tobacco notes. The Petite Verdot makes its contribution felt in both the wine’s dark, deeply-pitched nuances of blue- and boysenberry and its finishing acidity and tannin which give verve and structure to a wine that revels in all of Paso’s abundant sunshine.
