Tasting Panel Scores: 93pts on Chardonnay & 94pts on Cabernet Sauvignon!

May 19, 2025

To be published in THE FRANZ FILES in the July issue of The Tasting Panel Magazine: 

Lava Cap 2023 Cabernet Sauvignon, El Dorado, Sierra Foothills ($32) This is highly exciting Cabernet offered at a price that won’t boost your blood pressure. Made from fruit grown in volcanic soils on hillside sites ranging in elevation from 2,700 to 3,100 feet (reportedly the highest elevation Cabernet Sauvignon plantings in Northern California), this is packed with pure blackberry fruit accented with a lip-smacking streak of saline minerality. Already quite complex in its youth, this will only improve for another five years.  94

Lava Cap 2024 Reserve Chardonnay, El Dorado, Sierra Foothills ($26) Sourced from six Chardonnay blocks ranging from 2,400 to 2,700 feet in elevation on estate vineyards planted in volcanic soil, this is intriguing on those grounds even before the wine hits the bottom of one’s glass. Medium-bodied, it displays very pure fruit notes of Golden apples and orchard fruits, fresh acidity, and a nice suggestion of saline minerality that one rarely finds in California Chardonnay.  93