Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
This wine from Rick Grimm and winemaker Paul Lato shows stunning potential for this new vineyard. Blackberry, thyme, black pepper and crushed slate aromas lead to a tremendously savory, umami-packed palate, where bay leaf and stewed mushroom notes envelop a core of blackberry and black currant fruit. The structure is solid, and the finish is long and strong. Editors' Choice
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon Grimm's Bluff Cliff Hanger (it includes a small amount of Petit Verdot) is also outstanding. Blackcurrants, black raspberries, sweet tobacco and herbs define this pretty, medium to full-bodied, polished and forward beauty that leads with its fruit.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Composed of 97% Cabernet Sauvignon and 3% Petit Verdot, the 2014 Cliff Hanger Cabernet Sauvignon has a medium garnet-purple color and nose of black cherries, blueberries and black currants with waft of underbrush, dried herbs and pencil shavings. Medium to full-bodied and packed with black and blue fruits plus plenty of earthy layers, it has a firm, chewy frame and long, earth-laced 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.