Winemaker Notes
Blend: 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Cabernet Franc, 15% Petit Verdot, and 5% Merlot
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Fabulous aromas of blueberries, blackcurrants, sage and mint. Lead pencil and graphite, too. Full body and ultra-fine tannins that are slowly transformed to ripe and beautiful fruit. Super polished and textured. Great finish. Drink in 2022, but it's hard not to drink now. This harkens back to the great Mondavi reserves of the 1970s in texture and construction.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2014 Proprietary Red is comprised of 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Cabernet Franc, 15% Petit Verdot and 5% Merlot. Deep garnet-purple colored, it is still very primary and comes bounding out of the glass with exuberant crushed blueberries, black cherries, blackcurrants and violets notes with suggestions of dark chocolate, cast iron pan, lavender and underbrush. Medium to full-bodied, firm, very finely crafted and possessing great finesse, it finishes long and layered.
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Wine Enthusiast
This estate red is named after its mountainous locale—a brambly vineyard on Pritchard Hill above Oakville. It combines quite ripe Cabernet Sauvignon with 15% Cabernet Franc, 15% Petit Verdot and 5% Merlot, projecting power and prestige with perfumed violet, dark cherry and savory leather and tobacco notes. Soft, pliable tannins add weight and texture.
Cellar Selection -
Wine Spectator
A touch raw in texture, with a strong showing of spicy, toasty, cedary oak that is unmistakable and dominant, yet more graceful and refined as this develops. Shows currant and blackberry fruit underneath. Ends as it starts, a little ragged, but authentic and forceful. Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Merlot.
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Wine & Spirits
Tim Mondavi makes this wine from his Pritchard Hill estate, where the vines face west toward Oakville and south toward Napa. The 2014 blends cabernet sauvignon (65 percent) with cabernet franc, petit verdot and merlot. Aging in French oak (68 percent new) shows in the tannins, amplifying the notes of woodsmoke. It’s a warm wine with black-cherry richness, needing bottle age for the tannins to mellow and integrate with the fruit.
Undoubtedly proving its merit over and over, Napa Valley is a now a leading force in the world of prestigious red wine regions. Though Cabernet Sauvignon dominates Napa Valley, other red varieties certainly thrive here. Important but often overlooked include Merlot and other Bordeaux varieties well-regarded on their own as well as for their blending capacities. Very old vine Zinfandel represents an important historical stronghold for the region and Pinot noir is produced in the cooler southern parts, close to the San Pablo Bay.
Perfectly situated running north to south, the valley acts as a corridor, pulling cool, moist air up from the San Pablo Bay in the evenings during the hot days of the growing season, which leads to even and slow grape ripening. Furthermore the valley claims over 100 soil variations including layers of volcanic, gravel, sand and silt—a combination excellent for world-class red wine production.