Duckhorn Estate Grown Cabernet Sauvignon 2005
Cabernet Sauvignon
from Napa Valley, California
winemaker's notes:
Our Estate Grown wines are blended using only the finest lots from our Napa Valley Estate Program, which is comprised of seven properties totaling 175 planted vine acres and featuring a diversity of soil types, elevations and microclimates. These mountain and valley floor vineyards are meticulously farmed by our experienced in-house vineyard team to ensure excellence throughout the viticultural process. The team harvests the grapes at optimal maturity, going through vineyard sites several times, picking only the ripe fruit with each pass. In any given harvest we have 30 or more separate lots of Estate wine. The final blend for this wine is approachable in its youth, with a soft texture and notable finesse, while still possessing the structure to age for a decade or longer.
A classic Cabernet Sauvignon that is blended with Merlot to add complexity and round out the mid-palate, this is a layered, mouth-filling wine with ripe, integrated tannins and a fine-grained finish. Dark aromas of toffee, hickory, bacon, cedar and smoke are contrasted by vibrant elements of red currant and spearmint. On the palate, black currant and blueberry flavors dominate, underscored by notes of earth and oak.
critical acclaim:
"If anyone needs proof that Napa Valley can still grown honest cabernet, structured rather than softened by tannins, taste this wine from Duckhorn. It’s balanced and firm, with plenty of alcohol to fire the earthiness. Its structure is completely filled by dark fruit and fruit-skin flavors of blueberries and black cherries. There's a lasting wild mushroom fruitiness to the tannin as well, adding depth to the wine and strengthening its potential to age."
93 Points
Wine & Spirits
"Lively, supple plum, black cherry and wild berry fruit is elegant, polished and full-bodied, with lots of finesse, fine-grained tannins and a long, smooth finish. Drink now through 2016."
90 Points
Wine Spectator
