Winemaker Notes
The 2016 Crown Point Cabernet Sauvignon is a full, rich, and beautiful wine that beckons both the nose and palate with a sense of textural generosity and aromatic complexity. Blue and black fruits are beautifully woven through its powerful core of minerality, accented by subtle notes of cocoa & toasted spices. This wine possesses an energy and freshness that indicates a long life ahead of it.
Mother Nature graced the estate with a near-perfect growing season in 2016. Conditions in the vineyard were optimal for producing evenly ripe, concentrated fruit, which displayed rich, developed tannins right off of the vine. In keeping with tradition, the 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon was sourced from multiple blocks on the estate, from a range of clones that all contribute different expressions of the variety to the wine. Small quantities of the other four noble Bordelaise varieties were added to the final blend for polish and complexity. All of the blocks were harvested & fermented separately, and the individual components were blended after 12 months of élevage in barrel. Total time in 225 liter French oak barrels (70% new) was 26 months.
Blend: 92% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3% Merlot, 2% Petit Verdot, 2% Cabernet Franc, 1% Malbec
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The Cabernet Sauvignon-dominated cuvée is the 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon (92% Cabernet Sauvignon with tiny amounts of the other varieties on the property). It’s cut from the same cloth as the Estate Selection, yet with just a touch more classic Cabernet blue fruits, purity, and precision. Blackcurrants, cassis, crushed violets, graphite, and lead pencil notes all give way to a powerful, concentrated, beautifully pure Cabernet that has ultra-fine tannins, a seamless texture, building tannins, and a great, great finish. It's another magical wine from this team that's going to benefit from 2-4 years of bottle age and keep for two decades. Rating : 97+
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Tasting Panel
Lush and deep, complex and lovely, with elegant and lively notes of plum, cherry, and spice as well as great balance.
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Wine Enthusiast
Aromas of black currant, toffee, caramel and coffee are wrapped in a lavish violet tone on the nose of this bottling. The tannic profile impresses, being polished yet firm and serious, and the flavors of deep strawberry, caramel, crushed stone and violet satisfy from start to finish.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon, blended with 2% Merlot, 2% Cabernet Franc, 2% Petit Verdot and 1% Malbec, is especially fresh and fruit-forward and stands apart in this vertical of Crown Point Cabernet. Medium ruby-purple, it has inviting aromas of currants and warm plums, iron, tapenade and tobacco with hints of licorice and dried flowers. The medium-bodied palate is intense but lifted, silky and polished, with a long, layered finish.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2016 Crown Point Cabernet Sauvignon took me by surprise, and is one of the most remarkable wines I have tasted recently. While I have already gotten a taste of the impressive wines from the Happy Canyon of Santa Barbara AVA, this wine surpassed many of the excellent wines I had tasted in my visits to this area. TASTING NOTES: This wine offers power and length, yet it stays well-balanced and persistent through its finish. Its spell bounding aromas and flavors of persistent black fruit, black licorice, and chalky notes make it a perfect foil with a blue veined-accented, grilled ribeye. (Tasted: April 11, 2020, San Francisco, 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.
On the eastern end of the Santa Ynez Valley, the rolling hills of the tiny Happy Canyon AVA produce top quality reds from Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Syrah and whites from Sauvignon blanc. The region’s low-nutrient soil grows smaller vines and in turn, higher quality wine grapes.