Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
-
Wine Enthusiast
Showing the best structure of Flora Springs’ impressive quartet of ’04 vineyard desigated Cabs, this is a firm, well-sculpted wine whose pedigree stands out, but it needs time. It’s a big, tannic, closed wine, dry and astringent. But there’s a gigantic heart of blackberry fruit, and I would be surprised if this wine doesn’t turn into a real beauty by 2010.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Two serious winners include the 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Reserve, a 100% Cabernet Sauvignon aged 21 months in French oak. This was the debut vintage of a Hillside Reserve offering, and it is a powerful, rich, opaque purple effort that remains closed at ten years of age. It requires 3-5 more years of cellaring and should easily last 30-40 years. Locked and loaded, it boasts a huge nose of cassis, cedar, cocoa and black cherries, a full-bodied, powerful style with an underlying earthy minerality, massive tannins and tremendous ripeness as well as texture. It tastes more like a 3- to 4-year-old wine than one that is a decade old, a characteristic that is common in this vintage.
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.