Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
A demonstration of restraint with depth focused on complexity, length, and poise. This 100% Cabernet Sauvignon delivers flavors of cedar, firm black plum, and the lightest touch of coffee, lifted by aromatics of crushed fennel seed and hints of pink grapefruit. Tannins are powdery fine while persistent, carried into a long finish by mouthwatering acidity.
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Wine Spectator
This takes an elegant approach, offering racy, refined notes of iris, violet, hibiscus and mulberry that stay focused and fresh from start to finish, flashing light mineral and anise accents along the way. The finish glistens with purity, and the precision should allow this to evolve nicely in the cellar. Drink now through 2040.
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James Suckling
Notes of blackberries and forest berries, black olives, cedar and wet earth. Full-bodied, very fine and polished, with firm, chalky tannins and crunchy dark fruit that is fresh and succulent. Hints of crushed stone at the end. Better after 2026.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The appellation 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon is outstanding and certainly plays in the fresher, classic, elegant style favored by this estate. Juicy blue fruits, violets, cassis, and spicy oak all define the aromatics, and it has a medium-bodied, elegant mouthfeel, nicely integrated tannins, and outstanding length. It's a perfect example of the quality and style that consistently emerges from this address. Drink bottles over the coming 15 years.
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Vinous
The 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon (Napa Valley) is gorgeous. Medium in body and super-expressive, the 2021 is a classic Cathy Corison wine. Pipe tobacco, cedar, crushed, leaves and earthy tones all run through this wonderfully nuanced Cabernet Sauvignon. Readers will find an exquisite, alluring old-school Napa Cabernet that delivers the goods, big time. All the elements are so well balanced. As always, the Napa Cabernet is a blend of three sites in St. Helena.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Made in her signature classic, restrained style, Cathy Corison's 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon boasts vibrant scents of cassis and black cherries while remaining medium-bodied, streamlined and silky on the palate. It's reasonably tannic, with fine-grained, gently dusty tannins on the finish, but also long and mouthwatering.
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.
St. Helena is in the heart of the Napa Valley, nestled between Calistoga to the north and Rutherford on its southern border. On its western side, the Mayacamas Mountains guard it from the cooling effects of the Pacific Ocean; to its east stand the Vaca Mountains. In conjunction, these mountain ranges serve to lock in summer daytime heat. But in the evening, cool air from the San Pablo Bay funnels up through the valley, creating very chilly nights. It isn’t uncommon for temperatures to drop 50 degrees, a shift that promotes a balance of sugar ripeness and acidity in wine grapes.
St. Helena contains a plethora of different soil types in a small area, which have been enhanced over centuries by rain runoff from both mountain ranges. Its vineyards cover a variety of terrain, spreading across the bucolic valley floor and its benchlands.
These ideal topographic and climatic growing conditions easily caught the attention of early winemaking pioneers. In fact, St. Helena is the birthplace of Napa Valley’s commercial wine industry. Dr. Crane founded his cellar in 1859, David Fulton in 1860 and Charles Krug in 1861.
Today there are no less than 400 separate vineyards planted within the 12,000 acres that make up the St. Helena appellation.
Revered most for its red wines based on Bordeaux varieties, namely Cabernet Sauvignon, the St. Helena appellation is also a source of superior Syrah, Zinfandel and Sauvignon blanc.