2015 Vérité La Muse 2015 1500ml

100 POINTS

Wine Enthusiast

This wine dazzles with perfection. Sourced from vineyards throughout Sonoma County, it refutes the belief that a great Cabernet must come from a single vineyard. It does not. The master's art of blending, coupled with demanding vineyard practices lends completeness. The blend is 85% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc and 5% Malbec, making it an extraordinary success despite the absence of Cabernet Sauvignon. Give credit to winemaker Pierre Seillan. The wine itself is absolutely dry. It starts with a tug of tannins, baring flavors of blackberries, black currants, minerals and new oak, with earthy, herbal and meaty complexities. This is a magnificent wine; it dazzles now and should evolve over the next 6–8 years.

97 POINTS

Robert Parker - Wine Advocate

Seillan said that 2015 (which was still in barrel at the time of my tasting) was the finest vintage of his lifetime, which is strong praise indeed. Certainly, he has three titanic wines aging in the wine cellars. The 2015 La Muse is a blend of 89% Merlot, 7% Cabernet Franc and 4% Malbec. Sweet notes of unsmoked cigar tobacco, mocha, espresso bean, chocolate, plum, Asian spice, blackcurrant and black cherries soar from the glass of this opaque-colored wine. It has great fruit, real sucrosity and lushness in the mid-palate, and a superduper inner core of glycerin followed by sweet, refined tannins in the finish. It is a strikingly flashy and flamboyant style of wine that should drink well for its first 30+ years of life.

97 POINTS

Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW - Wine Advocate

Composed of 90% Merlot, 7% Cabernet Franc and 3% Malbec, the 2015 La Muse sports a very deep garnet-purple color, leaping from the glass with exuberant crème de cassis, blueberry pie and licorice notes plus suggestions of Indian spices, dark chocolate, menthol, sautéed herbs and potpourri. Full-bodied, rich and seductive in the mouth, it delivers tons of black and blue fruit preserves flavors, accented by exotic spices, framed with velvety tannins and finishing on a persistent earthy/mineral note. 3,900 cases were made.

95 POINTS

Antonio Galloni MW - Vinous

The 2015 La Muse is developing beautifully. Ripe, ample and voluptuous in the glass, the 2015 exudes character. Even with all of its obvious intensity, the 2015 has quite a bit of freshness to balance out the ripe, racy Merlot-based fruit. Super-ripe red cherry, plum, mocha and spice notes build into the racy, inviting finish.