Wine reviews
From the Beckstoffer Missouri Hopper Vineyard, block B, clone 337, vines roughly 25 years old. Nils Venge started the brand in 1992 with the first vintage of Venge Vineyards. Kirk Venge, his son, started making the wines in 2003 and took over the brand in 2008. A seductively smooth and polished red wine with savoury aromatics of blackberry and black currant fruit tinged with toasty oak spices hinting at olive tapenade. Intense tannins grip the palate, eventually resolving through a framework of crisp acidity, which helps maintain freshness and verve as the wine further reveals fragrant wild herbs and mocha-tinged oak on the long finish.
Killer black and blue fruits, chalky minerality, black olive, tobacco, and damp earth notes all emerge from the 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer Missouri Hopper Vineyard, a full-bodied, deep, rich, incredibly impressive barrel sample from Kurt Venge. As with the Family Reserve, a few years of bottle age are warranted.