Winemaker Notes
The Etude Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon is handcrafted from several unique vineyards representing the major benchland sub-appellations of Napa Valley—Rutherford, St. Helena, Oakville and Calistoga. By deliberately sourcing fruit from this range of exemplary sources, the assembled wine attains the important range of expression and nuance that gives this wine its depth of character.
The blend for the 2005 bottling consists of Cabernet Sauvignon (98%) with a touch of Cabernet Franc (2%). The wine spent a minimum of 24 months in French oak barrels (80% new).
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Etude's 2005 defines power and authority, Napa style. It's hard to imagine a Cabernet Sauvignon more explosive in blackberry, cherry and chocolate fruit flavor. Yet the structure is superb, with firm but ultrarefined tannins providing an architecture to house all that richness. Beautiful now, and should age gracefully for a decade.
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Connoisseurs' Guide
Nicely outgoing and well-focused on fairly concentrated aromas of black cherries and creamy oak, this wine is full in body without giving itself over to heaviness and has a supple feel on the palate and appropriate structure in support. Its tannins are well within the bounds for Cabernet, and the wine needs only three to five years to reach its best.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Deep ruby/purple hue is followed by notes of black currants, lead pencil, tobacco leaf, and spice box. Well-made, with medium body as well as good fruit, texture, and depth, it should drink nicely for 12-15+ years.
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Wine Spectator
Very tightly wound, with a bundled mix of spicy dried currant, sage, mineral and deep, rich berry flavors that slowly unfold, offering more depth, richness and persistence on the finish. Best from 2011 through 2017.
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.