Winemaker Notes
Blend: 97% Cabernet Sauvignon, 2% Cabernet Franc, 1% Petit Verdot
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The inky colored 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate is a classic blend of 97% Cabernet Sauvignon, 2% Cabernet Franc and 1% Petit Verdot that spent two years in mostly used barrels. It offers a beautiful, elegant, yet concentrated style in its crème de cassis, licorice, tobacco leaf, graphite and mineral aromatics. Reminding me of the 2002 with its beautiful depth of fruit and ripe, building tannin, it's an age-worthy, balanced wine that's going to evolve for 2+ decades.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The Chateau Montelena Estate Cabernet Sauvignon is always in the top tier of Napa Cab of any vintage. The 2014 vintage rocks with the best of them in the market. TASTING NOTES: This wine is a picture of elegance. Its stylish aromas and flavors of ripe red and black fruit start and finish strong. Pair it with grilled Provencal-spiced lamb chops. (Tasted: January 17, 2017, Walnut Creek, 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.
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.