Cakebread Benchland Select Cabernet Sauvignon 2002
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Robert
Parker
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In 2002, Napa Valley enjoyed a long, mild growing season of consistently warm days and cool nights, with just a few manageable heat spikes in late September and early October. With an expectation of healthy yields, many growers significantly thinned their crops and pruned shoots and leaves extensively to guarantee the vines put all their energy into ripening the remaining grape clusters, ensuring highly concentrated, complex fruit flavors. Cakebread Cellars further maximized grape quality by using advanced soil moisture management techniques to precisely calibrate the amount of water required by the vines at critical junctures throughout the season.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Even at age ten, the 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon Benchland Select (86% Cabernet Sauvignon and 14% Malbec) is reserved, displaying a deep ruby/purple color along with hints of plums, sweet espresso roast, subtle toast/smoky new oak and a darker black currant note. Medium-bodied and elegant, with sweet tannin, copious layers, and a long, intense finish, it tastes more like a 3- to 5-year-old Napa Cabernet rather than one that’s a decade old. It should improve over the next ten years and last for 30 years.
Rating: 91+
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Over 30 years ago, Jack Cakebread came to photograph the Napa Valley for a book and while there, he casually mentioned his interest in one day owning a vineyard to some family friends who had a ranch in Rutherford. When he returned home that afternoon, the phone rang and it was the family friends offering to sell their property. He headed back up to the valley that same afternoon to make his best offer, and Cakebread Cellars was born.
As the Cakebread family reflects upon the many profound changes in the wine industry over the last 33 years, such as innovative farming techniques and new methods of reaching out to consumers, they note that their key values have remained the same. Dedication to making the highest quality wines and a commitment to family has followed a continuum as their first small vineyard has grown into a thriving internationally distributed wine company.