Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2013 Janzen Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer Missouri Hopper Vineyard is from another Oakville site. This wine offers up much more unsmoked cigar tobacco, wet gravel/minerality, crème de cassis, licorice and graphite. It is full-bodied, intense, multilayered, gorgeously pure and long. It can be drunk early on, or cellared for 30+ years.
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James Suckling
Lots of tar, asphalt and blackberry aromas and flavors. Full body, chewy and polished tannins. A rich and intense wine with a lot of alcohol but shows form and tension. Better in 2019 but impressive now.
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Wine Enthusiast
From another of Andy Beckstoffer's sites in Oakville, Missouri Hopper is a mix of cassis, kirsch and leather, its full-bodied structure marked in generous toasty oak. Tea and leather provide a savory edge, balancing the richness of the red fruit. Drink now through 2023. Cellar Selection
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Wine Spectator
Intense and powerful, supple and graceful, with moderate tannins. Offers ultraripe blackberry and black licorice flavors without losing velocity. Drink now through 2028. 212 cases made.
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.