Lightning Bolt is the barrel-selected top Cabernet Sauvignon from Coup de Foudre, a small Napa Valley winery. Only a handful of barrels are chosen each year, so the 2019 is made in very small quantity and is deeper and more structured than the regular Cabernet.
About This Wine
Lightning Bolt is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, assembled from the pick of the cellar each year rather than from a fixed vineyard. The 2019 was aged for about 20 months in new French oak, which gives it a creamy mid-palate and a firm frame. It comes from a mild, even Napa season that gave ripe fruit with good freshness. Decanted and given time, it opens into a plush, layered wine with plenty of life ahead.
Tasting Profile
- Nose: Dark cherry, cassis and plum, with dark chocolate, spice and a note of new leather.
- Palate: Deep and inky, with concentrated black and blue fruit, a crème brûlée richness from oak and polished, firm tannins.
- Finish: Composed and lasting, broadening with air and closing on cocoa and spice.
Serving & Food
This one needs air: decant for 90 minutes or more before pouring into large Bordeaux glasses at 16 to 18°C. It is good now and should keep well into the 2030s. Dry-aged steak, braised oxtail or aged Comté make fine partners.
How to Enjoy
Special dinners, Napa Cabernet enthusiasts and a thoughtful gift for someone who already knows the big names.
Product Details
Producer: Coup de Foudre
Origin: Napa Valley, California, USA
Style: Cabernet Sauvignon
Vintage: 2019
Grape Variety: 100% Cabernet Sauvignon
Cask: About 20 months in new French oak
Volume: 750ml
Cuvée: Barrel selection from the cellar
About the Winery
Coup de Foudre is owned by John Schwartz, who started in the wine trade in 1988 shipping California wine to Japan and is also behind Amuse Bouche. He took the name, French for a lightning strike or love at first sight, from the night he met his wife at a party in the French Alps. The first vintage was 2004.
Kent Jarman, who worked at Duckhorn and Spring Mountain Vineyard before joining in 2007, makes the wines. Output across the whole range is only a few thousand cases a year, from a small parcel of vines near Calistoga plus grower fruit from around the valley.