Winemaker Notes
InSpire pairs perfectly with well-marbled steaks, full-bodied cheeses, lamb and pork dishes as well as moderately spiced cuisines.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Fruit and oak combine in this young, sensuous wine to make for immediate drinkability, but it's ageable. Floods the mouth with ripe, forward flavors of blackberry pie with the smoky-sweet crust, and there are notes of cola, black currant liqueur and Indian spices. This is a very fine, elegant Cabernet, with superfine tannins. It should age well throughout the decade.
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Wine & Spirits
Mia Klein blended this wine from a range of vineyard sources, producing a supple 2007. It balances fresh cherry and cherry compote flavors, deep fruit filling out the tannins. Oak age has brought out a pencil lead character in those tannins, finely tailored and firm. This should develop well over the coming years, to drink with roast squab.
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Wine Spectator
Firm and tightly structured, with a focused band of cedar and anise-laced currant, blackberry, wild berry, sage and herb, gaining depth while remaining elegant and refined. Complex and concentrated, with the flavors lingering on. Drink now through 2018.
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.