Winemaker Notes
The Atlas Peak Mountain Series are limited production wines that showcase the best of the prestigious Napa Valley Mountains: Atlas Peak, Mount Veeder, Howell Mountain and Spring Mountain District. The grapes growing at high elevation, and above the natural fog line, experience lower daytime temperatures than those on the valley floor, allowing the grapes to stay cool while gaining maximum sun exposure. Mountain top vineyards have poorer soils, allowing better drainage, thereby producing smaller berries with more skin to juice. These wines are handcrafted by our winemaker to make more intense, more structured and age worthy wines.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Big, firm tannins mark this wine. They're not clunky and hard, though, but refined and smooth, providing a rich structure to the massively concentrated blackberries, blueberries, cherries and sweet, smoky oak. Very fine and classic, and drinking well now, with decanting, and through the next 6–8 years.
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.