Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
This delivers almost unbridled plum sauce, blackberry preserve and melted licorice flavors, but keeps a smoldering edge for form while picking up alluring black tea and incense notes on the broad finish. There's a long echo of chocolate adding to this hedonist’s delight. Drink now through 2032.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: My journey with the Caymus Vineyards Special Selection began with the 1975 vintage that I enjoyed in the late 1970s—that wine was released at $22 and remained as one of most remarkable wines in California history. Since that experience, I have made sure to follow this wine's path. The 2015 vintage shows the heritage of Napa Valley royalty. TASTING NOTES: This wine embodies the richness and structure that puts it among the world's top producers of Cabernet and Bordeaux styled wines. Its aromas and flavors of bright and bold black fruits, earth, and luxurious oak should make a lovely pairing mate with a thick grilled Porterhouse. (Tasted: March 8, 2019, San Francisco, CA)
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.