In the middle of the 1990s, Dave Phinney spent a semester abroad in Italy and decided against becoming a lawyer. Ever since, he hasn’t looked back. After working at Robert Mondavi’s harvest and growing experimental Zinfandel plots in Arizona, Phinney began developing his first wine label, The Prisoner, in 1997.
Today, Orin Swift takes some of the best vineyard selections to make visually stunning Napa Valley wines.
The wine starts off with strong kirsch and blackberry flavours before becoming juicy plum and fig. After a magnificent entrance that envelops the senses, the wine’s palate reveals a more refined side with notes of black cherry, blackcurrant, toffee, and faint undertones of sweet red vermouth, chopped mint, and orange peel. It finishes with ripe, strong tannin and a bit of dryness. It is polished, balanced, and has a slight sweetness.
Food pairing suggestion:
Did you know? ‘Papillon’ is a French word for Butterfly. David actually got the idea of naming the wine from his small daughter. They were strolling amogst the vines one day and she pointed at a butterfly, identifiying it in pure French! He knew he wanted to name the wine Papillon, but when it came to creating the label, a completely contrasting image came to David’s mind: a pair of aged man’s hands with a message tattooed across the knuckles. He liked the idea of the rough look alongside the pretty name, and Papillon happened to be a word that could be written in just eight letters using two sets of four knuckles.
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