Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
One of the great, contemporary interpretations of Napa cabernet, this has a stunning nose of ripe cassis and plums with delicate cocoa-powder, licorice and sage notes. Very concentrated but also super-bright and really graceful, as it glides over the palate. This has minerality that’s rare in California, adding an extra element of vitality to the very long finish. Only 13.3 per cent alcohol. Drink or hold.
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Wine Enthusiast
Given 20 months in French oak, half of it new, this is a remarkably supple, complex and elegantly crafted wine from the great site, a monument to the happy marriage between winemaker and site, the latter still on St. George rootstock and over four-decades old in age. Cedar, rose, tangy currant and ash ride along a thread of crisp, persistent acidity and thick tannin. This wine will do well in the cellar; enjoy best from 2026–2031.
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Wine Spectator
Distinctive, featuring a vivid stream of damson plum, boysenberry and black cherry puree flavors that are seamlessly layered, flecked with a floral note and carrying through to a mineral-tinted finish. Ripe, but with a sense of grace and detail atypical for this vintage. Approachable for all its charm, but has the refinement to develop a bit more in the cellar. Best from 2021 through 2031.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Moving to the two luxury cuvées, the 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Kronos Vineyard is all Cabernet from a single vineyard outside of St. Helena. A bigger, richer wine, it offers more plums, spice box, dried herbs, and incense notes in a rounder, layered, nicely concentrated package. It's another classic effort from this estate that has loads to love.
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Wine & Spirits
All structure for now, this wine’s tannins surround its fruit like an oversized suit. That fruit is sweet red cherry, hibiscus and plum while the tannins are hard, with the dark savor of tobacco and bitter chocolate. The pre-phylloxera cabernet vines at Kronos date to 1971 and are some of the oldest in Napa Valley; they deliver a concentrated wine that needs bottle age. Check on this in a year or two and it’s likely to be transformed.
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.