Winemaker Notes
Enjoy the 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon with richly textured dishes, such as veal roast with mushrooms, rack of lamb with rosemary butter, and filet mignon with black olive sauce.
Professional Ratings
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Tasting Panel
Just 14 miles from the Pacific, the southernmost AVA in Paso Robles is also its coolest and boasts its longest growing season. Director of Winemaking Mike Sinor’s thoughtful blend of 88% Cabernet Sauvignon with small percentages of the other four Bordeaux varieties offers structure, vibrancy, and dimension. Inviting aromas of sweet earth, black olive, and blackberry precede a sumptuous mouthfeel with polished tannins and a backdrop of heather. A line of chalkiness that’s inherent to the terroir works in tandem with balanced acidity and flavors of spiced cedar, espresso, and ripe plum.
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Wine & Spirits
This seductive cabernet leads with savory aromas of black olive and pine. It is deep and flavorful, with an Amarone-like richness framed by firm but pliable tannins. It’s a guilty pleasure to pour with steak and chimichurri. Best Buy
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The Ancient Peaks Cabernet Sauvignon is one of Paso Robles' most consistent wines from year to year. The 2017 vintage commands an excellent presence. TASTING NOTES: This wine is well-built and nicely textured. It is up-front and bold black in its fruit aromas, and its flavors stay steady through the palate and into the finish. Pair it with a Creole-spiced, grilled lamb chop. (Tasted: September 13, 2019, San Francisco, CA)
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.
Composed of steep mountain slopes of ancient Salinas River origins at 900 to 1,400 feet in elevation, Santa Margarita Ranch is in the southern portion of the greater Paso Robles AVA.