By Ovid
2021 Ovid Napa Valley Red Wine

Wine Description
OVID Napa Valley is our flagship wine and also our compass. In the way it embodies the tensions and intricacies of both our vineyard and philosophy, the wine guides us as much as we guide it. Always a blend that changes subtly from year to year, OVID Napa Valley is based on Cabernet Sauvignon, which established the voice of our property while connecting it to the greater continuity of Napa Valley. Cabernet Franc, an independent and contrasting voice, provides a perfect counterpoint. Small portions of Merlot and Petit Verdot smooth edges and strengthen foundations. They coalesce to become a profound, congruous wine, whose beauties and pleasures - not unlike an epic story - lie in its depth, vitality, timelessness, and complexity. Great wines can never be fixed ideas, as they represent the fluidity of time and nature. The evolving nature of this flagship wine registers the ongoing transformations of our vineyard and reflects openness to fresh thinking.

2021 Vintage
The 2021 vintage continued the second year of drought in the western United States, and OVID was no exception. A cool February and March pushed budbreak back to historical normal, with buds emerging in late March. Temperate weather gave way to a little bit of warmth during bloom, setting clusters that were long and loose - exemplary of ideal bunches. Ample sunlight and a temperate summer coaxed the grapes along and provided ideal ripening weather. Due to the superb weather, harvest began a bit early, with the first pick in mid-September. We slowly made our way through the estate, enjoying our time in the vines and collecting fruit from each block at its zenith of expression. Our last pick wrapped at the end of the first week of October. This luxurious time and length can be felt in these expansive wines.

Tasting Notes
Loquacious in its approach, the 2021 OVID Napa Valley offers notes of fresh mulberry, kola nut, blackberry, black cherry, flint, and bay laurel that are striking in purity. Broad and enveloping, this wine delivers undeniably delicious power and will continue to tell its vivid, seamless story for decades to come.

Wine Details
Appellation: Napa Valley
Soil Type: Hambright series
Harvest Dates: September 17 - October 5
Aging: 20 months
pH: 3.78
Alcohol: 14.80%
[Information provided by Ovid]

Wine: Ovid Napa Valley 2021
Score/Rating: 98
Suggested Drinking Window: Best after 2028
Review Date: 01/24/2024
Reviewed By: James Suckling
Tasting Notes: The purity of fruit and class to this wine is really impressive, with roses, lavender. violets and blackcurrants and a sweet lift. Medium- to full-bodied with very long and racy tannins. They go from the front of your palate to the back. This is so beautiful and graceful yet structured. Give this at least four to five years. Best after 2028.

Wine: Ovid 2021 Ovid
Score/Rating: 97
Suggested Drinking Window: 2026 - 2036
Review Date: 12/2023
Reviewed By: Antonio Galloni
Tasting Notes: The 2021 Ovid is another exceptional wine in this range. Dark shades of Cabernet Sauvignon fruit open first, followed by hints of leather, lavender, spice, tobacco and incense that lend complexity. Deep and structured, with notably finessed tannins for a young mountain wine, the 2021 delivers the goods. This is quite impressive in the early going, especially with time in the glass.

Wine: 2021 Ovid OVID
Score/Rating: 96-98
Review Date: 02/16/2023
Reviewed By: Jeb Dunnuck
Tasting Notes: Pure Cabernet Sauvignon notes of blue fruits, fresh tobacco, chocolate, and violets emerge from the 2021 OVID, another full-bodied, rich, concentrated red from 2021. As with the Hexameter, the purity of fruit is incredible, and it's flawlessly balanced.

Wine: 2021 Ovid Winery Red Wine
Score/Rating: 95+
Suggested Drinking Window: 2027 - 2045
Review Date: 10/17/2024
Reviewed By: Joe Czerwinski
Tasting Notes: Like the 2021 Hexameter, Ovid's 2021 Red Wine combines red and black fruits, bright acids and ripe tannins. Hints of redcurrants accent black cherries, joined by mocha and baking spices on the nose, while the palate is full-bodied and framed by dusty tannins, finishing long and fresh. If I've been conservative in my rating of this blend of 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Cabernet Franc, 6% Merlot and 4% Petit Verdot, it's just because it comes across as a bit edgy, in need of several years of cellaring for it to show its best.

Wine: Ovid 2021 Napa Valley
Score/Rating: 16.5/20
Suggested Drinking Window: 2026 - 2036
Review Date: 09/30/2024
Reviewed By: Richard Hemming MW
Tasting Notes: Fairly closed style with the oak sitting a little adrift from the fruit. Did I catch this on a bad day? (RH)