Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This pre-release bottle tastes so tight and intense with very firm tannins, vivid acidity and bracing bright red fruits, together with savory, cedary accents and minty, bay-leaf and earth nuances. It’s built for the long haul, but so fresh, appetizing and focused that it’s approachable now. Full-bodied. Best from 2028.
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Vinous
The 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Monte Rosso Vineyard is laced with bright, lifted aromatics. Medium in body yet deep, the 2021 has a lot to offer. It is an especially high-toned wine that speaks to the essence of site. Vibrant acids really capture the personality of Monte Rosso. All it needs is a bit of time in bottle.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Tasted as a blended tank sample—the wine spends 28 months in oak and was scheduled to be bottled two weeks after my February 2024 visit—the 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Monte Rosso Vineyard features scents of crushed stone, redcurrants and ripe cherries, joined by some vaguely floral notes. Full-bodied, concentrated and rather tannic, the wine finishes with bright, vibrant acids that accentuate the tannins and hints of dark chocolate and coffee.
Barrel Sample: 92-94 -
Wine Spectator
A bright, showy style, offering violet, cassis and boysenberry aromas and flavors that glide through, with a gentle kiss of singed vanilla for guidance. Drink now through 2032. 1,540 cases made.
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.
Covering the western slopes of the Mayacamas Mountains, facing the city of Sonoma, Moon Mountain District is one of Sonoma’s newest sub-appellations. Here the well-drained, red volcanic and ash soils produce hauntingly intense red wines, mainly from Zinfandel and Cabernet Sauvignon and other Bordeaux varieties.