Cornell Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon 2018
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James
Suckling - Decanter
Product Details
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Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
A wine of tremendous clarity and energy, the 2018 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon leads with enticing blackberry, black currant, cardamom, and violets on the nose. Cassis-hued and anchored by sleek minerality and cohesive structure, its mountain provenance is evidenced by a full spectrum profile of fresh summer cherry, dried mint, river rock, and espresso on the palate. Brimming with vitality and gravitas, this supremely balanced wine promises decades of enjoyment.
Blend: 98% Cabernet Sauvignon, 1% Petit Verdot, 1% Malbec
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Tightly wound but sleek in texture, starting with new oak aromas of cinnamon, cedar and nutmeg followed by blackcurrants, black cherries and toast. Full-bodied but with great balance and tension for much longer aging potential. 98% cabernet sauvignon.
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Decanter
With this vintage, the sixth release, Françoise Peschon is now consultant winemaker. She first met Henry and Vanessa Cornell in 2011 and officially joined them as winemaker in 2013, bringing on board Elizabeth Tangney in 2018 as the director of viticulture and winemaking. The abundant growing season in this western-facing pocket of the Mayacamas range atop Spring Mountain, delivered a deeply concentrated and structured 2018. Voluptuous blackberry fruit is layered with cassis, dark plum and cocoa, along with dried wild fennel and thyme. Firm, fine-grained tannins provide support through the long crushed-stone finish.
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Eighteen years ago on the top of Spring Mountain, Henry and Vanessa Cornell purchased a plot of rugged, untamed ground on a former stagecoach route where vines had been tended by early settlers. With respect for the land foremost in their minds, they returned the rolling hillsides to vineyards. Two hundred wild acres with sweeping views contain twenty acres of obsessively farmed vineyard blocks, each with its own distinctive imprint. Under the guidance of winemakers Francoise Peschon and Elizabeth Tangney, Cornell Vineyards strives to make a Cabernet Sauvignon that is faithful to the diversity of this impressive land.
Straddling the Mayacama mountain range, the location is Sonoma County’s Santa Rosa high atop Spring Mountain. Cornell Vineyards is perched between 1600 and 1900 feet. This is the land where clouds pass so close you can almost reach out and touch them. Where terrain and weather are untamed. A frontier of wild yesterday’s where stagecoaches once traversed. Cornell experiences warm afternoons and cool, fog-free mornings. No scorching 100-degree heats like the valley floor gets. Bud break is later than the valley floor, as is the harvest. Stylistically Cornell picks earlier than many others.
Considered relatively small in terms of wineries in Sonoma, Cornell Vineyards are structured in 20 blocks for a total of 20 acres (approximately 30,000 vines). Bordeaux varietals are their focus: Cabernet Sauvignon (17 acres); Merlot (1 acre), Petit Verdot (1 acre); Malbec (one-half acre), and Cabernet Franc (one-half acre). Like many wine producers creating exceptional wines, Cornell Vineyards uses only a small percentage of the very best vineyard lots, 25 separate picks were conducted in 2014, only 36% of the harvested grapes ended up going into the final blend.
“The artistry comes in how we farm and then how we make and blend the wine. We are meticulously farming each of our 20 vineyard blocks differently — many of which are half-acre sizes. We do this because each is so unique and represents its own microclimate and a different blend of our five soil types. What that means is that there is a lot of hands-on farming going on here and that we’ve come to know each section of the vineyard and understand its personality.” Elizabeth Tangney, Viticulturist
A noble variety bestowed with both power and concentration, Cabernet Sauvignon enjoys success all over the globe, its best examples showing potential to age beautifully for decades. Cabernet Sauvignon flourishes in Bordeaux's Medoc where it is often blended with Merlot and smaller amounts of some combination of Cabernet Franc, Malbecand Petit Verdot. In the Napa Valley, ‘Cab’ is responsible for some of the world’s most prestigious, age-worthy and sought-after “cult” wines. Somm Secret—DNA profiling in 1997 revealed that Cabernet Sauvignon was born from a spontaneous crossing of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc in 17th century southwest France.
