OAK FARM PETIT VERDOT 2018

Petit Verdot rarely headlines a wine — in Bordeaux it's a blending grape, and most California producers treat it the same way, making Oak Farm's varietal bottling a genuine outlier. The Panella family replanted their 60-acre estate in Lodi in 2012, farming clay-rich valley floor soils that push the variety's naturally deep color and firm tannin structure. The 2018 delivers concentrated blackberry, dark cocoa, and violet on the nose, with a mild smoky character and the grippy, dense tannins that define Petit Verdot when it carries a wine on its own.