Winemaker Notes
The 2022 Spottswoode Cabernet Sauvignon shows youthful tannins, bursting with wild strawberries, marionberries, and violets on the palate. Layers of graham cracker baking spice, cocoa powder, and toasted spice draw you in. A slight salinity ties it together.
Blend: 86% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Cabernet Franc, 5% Petit Verdot
Professional Ratings
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
The 2022 Spottswoode Cabernet Sauvignon is especially meaningful to me. Spottswoode has long been near and dear to my heart—I sold their 1982 maiden vintage at Ashbury Market—and my connection with the Novak family has only deepened that bond. From the first sniff, this 2022 shows why their legacy endures: spices aplenty, with cinnamon and black currants creating an almost spiritual first impression. On the palate, the wine is tight-knit, beautifully woven, and unmistakably in another class. This is the Novaks’ vision at its purest. (Tasted: November 28, 2025, San Francisco, CA)
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Recently released (September 2025), Spottswoode's 2022 Cabernet Sauvignon is perhaps slightly bigger than usual for this property but still retains a sense of freshness. Loaded with cassis and blackberries, it's full-bodied, plush and voluptuous, yet also long and mouthwatering on the finish. Wonderfully forward but balanced, the juicy fruit is successfully framed by silky, soft tannins.
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James Suckling
This wine shows pretty fruit and a rather soft texture. It’s not overly full-bodied, so it's a vintage that's drinkable young. Aged in 65% new oak. Mild, creamy, layered tannins. Easy and gorgeous.
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Decanter
Attractive red berry fruit is laced with leather and sandalwood, nuanced by perfumed rose petals and cedar spice. It is medium-bodied on the palate and features lithe tannins that grip the finish with building intensity. A wine of brightness and energy, with savoury layers adding depth and complexity.
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Jeb Dunnuck
A solid step up, with more density and depth, the 2022 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate is based on 86% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Cabernet Franc, and 5% Petit Verdot and aged 20 months in 62% new oak. Ripe blackcurrants, mulberries, spicy wood, graphite, and floral notes all shine here, and it's medium to full-bodied, with a pure, layered, seamless mouthfeel, plenty of mid-palate depth, and outstanding length.
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Vinous
The 2022 Cabernet Sauvignon is a wonderfully classy, polished wine. Today, the 2022 comes across as a bit soft, but it is such a charmer. Rose petal, bright red cherry/plum fruit, cedar and mocha build nicely in the glass. This comes across as a bit quiet, but all the estate signatures are present. It's an exquisite wine from Spottswoode.
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Wine Spectator
This version delivers seductive flavors of mulberry, boysenberry and blackberry com- pote, along with gently singed alder, anise and black tea notes, plus flashes of iris and ink. Shows the more sedate energy of the vintage, but with range, form and definition. An impressive effort.
Spottswoode is an historic, family-owned estate vineyard and winery located on the western edge of St. Helena in Napa Valley. The estate was established in 1882 by George Schonewald, whose historic Victorian home is depicted on the label. Spottswoode was christened by Mrs. Albert Spotts, whose family owned the property from 1910 until its purchase in 1972 by Mary Weber Novak and her husband, Dr. Jack Novak. After Jack died unexpectedly in 1977, Mary carried out their shared dream, and Spottswoode’s debut Cabernet Sauvignon was produced in 1982, exactly one hundred years after the estate’s founding.
To ensure the highest quality, Spottswoode is dedicated to producing a handful of wines in very limited quantities: Spottswoode Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, Sauvignon Blanc, Lyndenhurst, and Field Book. The winery's goal is to produce exceptional, well-balanced, structured wines that exhibit texture, elegance, consistency and the ability to age well.
The 40-acre Spottswoode Estate Vineyard is an ideal terroir for growing wine grapes. Situated on the apex of the Sulphur Creek fan, the alluvial soils comprised primarily of sandy clay loam provide superb drainage. The gap between the Mayacamas Range and Spring Mountain admits cooling maritime breezes that temper the sun’s heat, creating an ideal microclimate for winegrowing. Among the first to introduce organic farming practices in the Napa Valley in 1985, Spottswoode is proud to have enjoyed the California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF) certification since 1992 and Demeter Biodynamic Certification since 2020. Spottswoode is also Napa Valley’s first Certified B-Corp winery.
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.
St. Helena is in the heart of the Napa Valley, nestled between Calistoga to the north and Rutherford on its southern border. On its western side, the Mayacamas Mountains guard it from the cooling effects of the Pacific Ocean; to its east stand the Vaca Mountains. In conjunction, these mountain ranges serve to lock in summer daytime heat. But in the evening, cool air from the San Pablo Bay funnels up through the valley, creating very chilly nights. It isn’t uncommon for temperatures to drop 50 degrees, a shift that promotes a balance of sugar ripeness and acidity in wine grapes.
St. Helena contains a plethora of different soil types in a small area, which have been enhanced over centuries by rain runoff from both mountain ranges. Its vineyards cover a variety of terrain, spreading across the bucolic valley floor and its benchlands.
These ideal topographic and climatic growing conditions easily caught the attention of early winemaking pioneers. In fact, St. Helena is the birthplace of Napa Valley’s commercial wine industry. Dr. Crane founded his cellar in 1859, David Fulton in 1860 and Charles Krug in 1861.
Today there are no less than 400 separate vineyards planted within the 12,000 acres that make up the St. Helena appellation.
Revered most for its red wines based on Bordeaux varieties, namely Cabernet Sauvignon, the St. Helena appellation is also a source of superior Syrah, Zinfandel and Sauvignon blanc.