Clos Du Val Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2015
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Product Details
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Winemaker Notes
This Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon is brimming with classic characteristics of cassis, bramble fruit and blueberry. The hints of butterscotch on the long, smooth finish are a giveaway of the new, carefully selected French oak barrel influence.
Blend: 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Franc
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A tight and solid 2015 with plenty of blackberry and currant character and polished and silky tannins. Full body, pretty fruit and a fresh finish. Shows tension and focus. A blend of 80% cabernet sauvignon, 12% merlot, 8% cabernet franc. Better in 2019.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate is rock solid and offers impressive currant and blackberry fruit characteristics, notes of graphite and lead pencil, medium to full-bodied richness, and terrific purity. A blend of 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Merlot and the rest Cabernet Franc, aged in 66% new French oak, it’s high-quality juice to drink over the coming decade or more.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Deep garnet-purple colored, the 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon—a blend of 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Merlot and 8% Cabernet Franc—features notions of cassis, black cherries and plums with hints of damp earth and cigar box. Medium to full-bodied, it has appealing vibrancy and freshness in the mouth, with a chewy frame and good length.
Other Vintages
2018- Decanter
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Wine
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Clos Du Val, French for “small vineyard estate of a small valley,” was founded in 1972, an era that wine writer Hugh Johnson referred to as “the turning point in modern wine history.” Two years before, the Goelet family tasked talented French-born winemaker Bernard Portet with finding vineyard land, anywhere in the world, capable of producing a world-class Cabernet Sauvignon.
Clos Du Val’s legendary debut Cabernet Sauvignon was one of only six California Cabernets selected for the famous 1976 Judgment of Paris Tasting, where California defeated some of Bordeaux’s finest wines. Ten years later, Clos Du Val’s reputation for creating some of Napa Valley's most gracefully age-worthy wines was solidified, when its 1972 Cabernet Sauvignon took first place in the Judgment of Paris rematch.
Still family-owned today, Clos Du Val farms 220 acres of estate vineyards in the Stags Leap District, and Yountville appellations and continues to craft wines of balance and complexity, showcasing the fruit from the outstanding terroir on which the estate lies.
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.