Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Leading off the 2017s from barrel, the 2017 Estate Cuvee is Cabernet Sauvignon-dominated and includes 8% Merlot and 3% Petit Verdot. This beauty has a Château Margaux-like complexity as well as sexiness, followed by notes of blueberries, red currants, incense, and spicy oak. It's rounded, fruit-forward, and textured, with the forward, fleshy, flamboyant style of the vintage front and center. It doesn't have the density of the 2016 yet is more approachable.
Range: 94-96 -
Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2017 Kapcsándy Family Winery Estate Cuvée Cabernet Sauvignon is a masterful wine with outstanding depth and complexity. TASTING NOTES: This wine packs aromas and flavors of generous and impressive black fruit. Enjoy it with a juicy, grilled ribeye. (Tasted: February 20, 2020, Yountville, CA)
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate Cuvée is a blend of 89% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Merlot and 3% Petit Verdot. It was aged in 55% new French oak, 18% new Hungarian oak and 27% second fill French oak. Deep garnet-purple in color, it strolls nonchalantly out of the glass with forward notes of baked black cherries, mulberries and warm cassis plus wafts of lilacs, cinnamon stick, cedar chest and clove oil. Medium to full-bodied, the palate rolls easily over the tongue with gregarious black and blue fruits plus a fragrant, floral edge and plush tannins, finishing with plenty of freshness and spicy kick.
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.
One of Napa Valley's most historic sub-appellations, Yountville spreads through some of the valley's ideal cooler sites and enjoys success with a handful of different and significant grape varieties.
Syrah competes strongly with Cabernet Sauvignon here for optimal vineyard real estate followed by Pinot noir, Pinot blanc and Sauvignon blanc.
This sub-AVA of Napa Valley is rich in the history that makes Napa Valley what it is today, and not just for red wines. Moët & Chandon entered the California winemaking business via Yountville in 1973 with the establishment Domaine Chandon. Their goal has always been to produce top quality méthode champenoise sparkling wines.
Christian Moueix, originally responsible for managing Chateau Petrus and La Fleur-Petrus in Pomerol, arrived in Yountville in the early 1980s. He formed a partnership with Rohin Lail and Marcia Smith, inheritors of Napanook vineyard from their father John Daniel of Inglenook in Rutherford. In 1995 Moueix became sole owner of Napanook and chose the name Dominus, which today produces some of Napa’s highest scoring, age-worthy Bordeaux Blends.