Winemaker Notes
The wine offers profuse aromas of blackberry, cassis, and dark plum. Elegant notes of violets, white pepper, and rose petals follow, and together they deliver a very seductive bouquet. The seamlessly layered flavors build to a crescendo of fresh and juicy black fruit, accented with hints of orange zest, licorice, and dark chocolate. Beautifully balanced, the smooth round tannins and acidity deliver a long persistent finish.
Blend: 98% Cabernet Sauvignon, 2% Petit Verdot
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon showed beautifully. Based on 98% Cabernet Sauvignon and 2% Petit Verdot, it reveals a dense purple hue as well as a great nose of crème de cassis and blueberry-like fruits along with ample green tobacco, lead pencil, sandalwood, and chocolate. It shows more and more floral notes with time in the glass and is full-bodied, with a beautiful sense of elegance and purity, silky tannins, and a rock star of a finish. This is straight-up gorgeous juice that can be enjoyed today or any time over the coming two decades or more.
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Wine Enthusiast
Lovely aromas of black cherry cordial surrounded by chocolate sauce and oak make for a juicy, yet smoky, entry to the nose of this bottling. There are a lot of tactile touch points on the chalky palate, where generous flavors of milk chocolate, cherry sorbet and toasted coconut are held together by a taut structure.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Medium ruby-purple, the 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon, blended with 5% Petit Verdot, is still tightly wound, requiring plenty of time for aromas of currants, mint chocolate, bell pepper, licorice and dried flowers to unfold. The medium-bodied palate is juicy and lifted, with an abundance of grainy tannins and a very long, savory finish.
Rating:94+ -
James Suckling
A ripe, juicy red with delicious black and blue fruit, some vanilla, chocolate and a touch of sage. Full-bodied and dry, yet succulent and plush, with fine-grained tannins and long, velvety and mint-flavored finish.
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.