Winemaker Notes
The Amici Spring Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon is always a wine of freshness driven by tannins, and the 2017 is no different. Capturing the essence of mountain-grown fruit, the wine is powerful yet graceful, with perfumed aromas of violets, fresh tobacco and blackberry. The savory, dense palate features licorice flavors along with juicy blackberry underlain with spearmint and loam. Strong, chalky mountain tannins that are already beginning to soften showing the age-ability of this wine.
Professional Ratings
-
James Suckling
Intense blackberry and blueberry aromas with cedar, lavender, hints of sage and currants. Full body and creamy tannins that are chewy, yet very fine-grained. Lovely creaminess to this. 100% cabernet sauvignon. Needs two or three years to soften. Try after 2021.
-
Jeb Dunnuck
A new release from this team, the 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon Spring Mountain District comes from the highest site in the appellation and is 100% Cabernet aged 22 months in new French oak. It’s a tight, focused, unquestionably mountain-styled wine (it’s tannic) yet has wonderfully pure, cooler fruit as well as complex notes of sappy green herbs, graphite, licorice, and spice. With medium to full-bodied richness, good concentration, and integrated acidity and tannins, it’s going to benefit from 2-4 years of bottle age and keep for two decades.
Rating: 94+
Over thirty years in the making, Amici Cellars is a blend of the old and the new. Preserving its legacy and producing wines of exceptional character is the unwavering commitment of proprietors John Harris and Bob Shepard, who attribute success in large part to the age-old adage “nothing replaces hard work,” but also their intuition and ability to capture the most significant opportunity in a decisive moment.
The turning point was 2009, when after more than 15 years of making wine as a passion project with modest distribution, the two friends fully committed to taking their adventure and turning it into a prestigious Napa Valley winemaking estate. The United States was facing the biggest economic downturn since the 1930s, costly Cabernets no longer flying off shelves, but John and Bob have always trusted in their intuition and a core belief - bottle beautiful, high quality wines that are accessible to enjoy every day and for age-worthy collections.
They have decidedly chosen a talented team, seasoned winemaker Tony Biagi, a Napa Valley veteran with more than 25-years-experience, and associate winemaker Dante West, a rising star whose energy matches his true-to-varietal wines. Together they bring decades of relationships with outstanding growers in the field that, combined with their craftsmanship, creates the best possible capsule of each vineyard site, a combination of the soil, climate and people who farm it.
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.