Winemaker Notes
Blend: 83% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Cabernet Franc, 5% Petit Verdot and 3% Merlot
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Complete and very complex, exhibiting rich plum and red currant flavors, with touches of anise, sage, herb and mineral. Plush, focused aftertaste.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2000 Cabernet Sauvignon Eisele Vineyard is a 1,700 case blend of 84% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Cabernet Franc, and the rest Petit Verdot and Merlot. This vintage produced lighter wines, resulting in a Bordeaux-like example of this cuvee. After 22 months in oak, this textured, perfumed Cabernet offers up aromas of black currants, earth, and lilacs (reminiscent of Chateau Margaux). It possesses a deep ruby/purple color as well as medium body, a good texture, a slight austerity, but brilliant purity and balance. A lighter-weight effort by Araujo’s standards, it is extremely well-balanced and approachable.
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.
One of Napa Valley’s oldest wine growing subregions but last to gain appellation status, Calistoga occupies the northernmost section of the valley. Beginning at the foot of Mount St. Helena, its vineyards stretch over steep canyons and roll out onto the valley floor. The soils in Calistoga are volcanic, which means they are heavy in minerals, low in organic matter and allow good drainage for vine roots, creating less green growth and more concentration of flavor within the grape berries.
Summer days are very hot but most nights cool down with moist ocean breezes sneaking in over the Mayacamas Mountains or from Knights Valley to its northwest.
Cabernet Sauvignon is the area’s star variety with Zinfandel coming in a strong second, though the latter commands far less price per tonnage so continues to be outshined by Cabernet in vineyard acreage, save for some important exceptions.