93pts James Suckling

Smoke, dark cherries, plums, plush spices, Mediterranean herbs and a touch of chocolate. Firm and caressing, with ripe, juicy fruit and structured tannins. Tightly wound finish of good length. Merlot, cabernet franc and petit verdot. Better in one more year.

Winemaker Notes

A wine of noble character, created by blending estate-grown Bordeaux varietals, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Petit Verdot, Octagon’s great prestige rests further on its being created only in fine vintages, and with the most astute selection from the harvest. This is the highest expression of our estate’s European derivation and inspiration, crafted to be a wine of distinctive character and age worthiness in every incarnation.

About the Name

Octagon could have been a white wine. Named to celebrate the estate’s diverse connections with the legacy of Thomas Jefferson, symbolized in the central octagon drawing room in his design for Governor Barbour’s mansion, there was nothing in Jefferson’s confidence in Piedmont Virginia as a winegrowing region, to suggest that the ultimate wine of any vineyard would necessarily be red. This we were told by our own ground, even as we grow ever more pleased with our development of white varietals since the turn of the century.

Our pre-eminent wine therefore is red, because its consistent core varietals, Merlot and Cabernet Franc, happened to outshine all others in the qualities of a wine of such stature, sooner than everything else, and at a time – the earliest 1990s – when we were motivated to craft a small blend to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the estate. Those qualities include, in no particular rank, a recognized compatibility for blending with each other, not as a correction but as an illumination of each other’s strengths; a capability for development in bottle toward greater elegance and nuance over a long cellar life; an inherently graceful opulence of body and duration of finish; a many-layered dynamic range of red fruit and non-fruit aromas and flavors; and textural suavity, color intensity, and allure of earth proclaiming not merely a passion for fine dining, but a gracious dialogue with the senses.

Blend: Merlot 62%, Cabernet Franc 34%, Petit Verdot 4%