Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Another stunner is the 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate. This is certainly in keeping with my vintage notes for the retrospective I did of the 2005 vintage for Bordeaux varietals in Northern California in Issue 219. A beautiful wine with sweet black and red currant fruit, licorice and graphite, the wine is big, full-bodied, yet at the same time, pure, elegant, and vigorously fresh and lively. This is a savory wine that builds incrementally on the palate and finishes splendidly. It should drink well for at least another 15-20 years.
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Wine Spectator
Polished and powerful, with lush notes of black cherry, mocha and cinnamon. An excellent wine from a young vineyard.—Non-blind Arrowood tasting (February 2015). Drink now through 2021.
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.
Perhaps the most historically significant appellation in Sonoma County, the Sonoma Valley is home to both Buena Vista winery, California's oldest commercial winery, and Gundlach Bundschu winery, California's oldest family-run winery.
It is also one of the more geologically and climactically diverse districts. The valley includes and overlaps four distinct Sonoma County sub-appellations, including Carneros, Moon Mountain District, Sonoma Mountain and Bennett Valley. With mountains, benchlands, plains, abundant sunshine and the cooling effects of the nearby Pacific, this appellation can successfully produce a wide range of grape varieties. Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Gewürztraminer, and most notably, Zinfandel all thrive here. Ancient Zinfandel vines over 100 years old produce small crops of concentrated, spicy fruit, which in turn make some of the Valley's most unique wines. These can also be made as “field blends” (wines made from a mix of grape varieties grown in the same vineyard) along with Petite Sirah, Carignan and Alicante Bouschet.