"The 2020 Smoke is the only red wine Aaron Pott will release in this vintage. In keeping with his wry sense of humor, Pott is choosing to be quite open about the challenges of the year. He told me the lots in this blend tested below threshold for taint, but that he still did not like them. I did not pick on taint, but the 2020 is decidedly a lighter style of wine marked by lifted aromatics, red-toned fruit and grippy tannins. (Vinous, 90 points) 

In the tricky 2020 vintage, Aaron Pott made just one wine from his estate vineyards and de-classified it to Napa Cabernet. As he says, “2020 will always be remembered for the two major fires that plagued the Napa Valley, which is a bummer because right up to the moment that the first fire broke out Napa had been enjoying an exceptional vintage of moderate weather and a lot of fussing over from winemakers who - thanks to Covid restrictions – had nowhere else to be. In a great vintage, we produce three Estate red wines from our Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot blocks: Agnes Sorel, Space & Time and Incubo, all within a five-acre vineyard. In other words, they are highly terroir specific. Our vineyards were as far as you can get in Napa from the smoke and we have no detectable smoke taint, but because of the heat, the winds and the diminished sunlight, the last part of 2020 just didn’t give us the definition we needed to justify making these three wines. But great terroir is great terroir.... So we’ve created a one-off: a 2020 vintage “panorama” of our Estate fruit. Sort of a super version of our annual red blend Pott Wine Napa Valley. It is a pleasure wine with great richness and density with wonderful elegance and complexity. A wine that offers incredible near-term pleasure and delivers fantastic value.”