On a visit to the Napa valley back in 2005 a friend recommended that I
visit Palmaz, a relatively new winery (2002 ws their first Cab
vintage) just outside of Napa. The winery was new and was built on a
mountain with 100% gravity feed. Estate grown grapes were trucked to
the top and the caves and shipping area was at the bottom. The owner
Julio Palmaz invented the Palmaz coronary stent and had done well. I
was a bit skeptical as there were already a plethora of rich guys
becoming winery owners with mixed results. Julio's daughter Florencia
met us at the winery, gave us a wonderful tour of the incredible
winery they had built and we tasted the wines. I was surprised at the
purity and depth and bought a few cases of the Estate Cabernet and the
Chardonnay as well as a case of the Muscat Canelli.

I haven't really drank much of the wine as I had taken the cases to my
small cellar at my farm and forgotten about it. I opened a bottle of
the 2002 Palmaz Cabernet this weekend. 87% Cab with the balance made
up of the usual Bordeaux varietals. The wine was still quite dark
with very little signs of age. Intense nose of cassis, blackberry and
espresso. Quite smooth and rich on the palate. Very pure fruit with
smooth tannins. The wine has gained a lot of complexity and I enjoyed
the bottle so much that we cracked another. "A-"