Sterling Platinum 2012
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Wilfred
Wong -
Wine
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Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
The use of small lot fermentation in a majority of stainless steel captures the inherent flavors in the fruit and maintain freshness, and color. The wine was aged for 21 months in French oak barrels, 60 percent new, to impart a gentle dusting of spice and depth of flavor.
Blend: 99% Cabernet Sauvignon, 1% Malbec
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Smooth, complex and layered, offering mocha-scented oak, ripe, snappy blueberry and blackberry fruit, with anise, cedar and espresso notes, all sailing along on the finish. The balance of acidity, tannins and fruit is evident. Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec. Drink now through 2024.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
The 2012 Sterling Vineyards Platinum Red Blend offers a sturdy and multi-layered example of a Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. Showing beautiful black fruit, with a hint of dust and tar, this wine is well suited for braised meats. Drinking quite well now.(Tasted: May 9, 2016, San Francisco, CA)
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Wine Enthusiast
Thick like a chocolaty malt, this full-bodied, robust wine is big and rich, concentrated and layered in tobacco and jam. Despite its size, it is drinkable now, with well-integrated tannins and a complete finish.
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Sterling Napa Valley wines show the depth, strength and expressive quality of California’s most famous wine region. Fruit for Sterling wines is grown throughout Napa Valley, from the cool southern Carneros region next to San Pablo Bay to the rugged northernmost bench-lands and reaches near our Calistoga homeplace. Sterling has more than five decades of winemaking excellence in Napa Valley, and winemaker Harry Hansen is able to build from that experience to select the finest lots to create the most memorable expressions of the varietal for each vintage. Key to the signature Sterling style is the contribution of fruit from our home base surrounding Calistoga, where fully ripe fruit offers soft tannins, black fruit profiles and approachability, alongside the firmer tannins evident in fruit from Diamond Mountain, offering great balance in the final assemblage and cuvée.
One of the most prestigious wines of the world capable of great power and grace, Napa Valley Cabernet is a leading force in the world of fine, famous, collectible red wine. Today the Napa Valley and Cabernet Sauvignon are so intrinsically linked that it is difficult to discuss one without the other. But it wasn’t until the 1970s that this marriage came to light; sudden international recognition rained upon Napa with the victory of the Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars 1973 Cabernet Sauvignon in the 1976 Judgement of Paris.
Cabernet Sauvignon undoubtedly dominates Napa Valley today, covering half of the land under vine, commanding the highest prices per ton and earning the most critical acclaim. Cabernet Sauvignon’s structure, acidity, capacity to thrive in multiple environs and ability to express nuances of vintage make it perfect for Napa Valley where incredible soil and geographical diversity are found and the climate is perfect for grape growing. Within the Napa Valley lie many smaller sub-AVAs that express specific characteristics based on situation, slope and soil—as a perfect example, Rutherford’s famous dust or Stags Leap District's tart cherry flavors.