Keenan Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon (stained label) 2014
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Winemaker Notes
2014 marks the 38th vintage for the Robert Keenan Winery and the 14th consecutive vintage of Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon. This year’s blend consists of 78% Cabernet Sauvignon Clone 15, and 19% Clone 7, both clones from their “Big K” vineyard, and 3% Cabernet Franc from the “Upper Bowl” vineyard. Deep aromatics, piercing and precise, a full rich saturated mouth feel, and a long lasting multi-layered finish define this exemplary blend. The 2014 Reserve Cabernet, comprised of fruit from 17 year old vines, is showing new subtle layers of flavors that we saw even during fermentation. Enjoy now or decades from now. Cheers!
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve Spring Mountain (97% Cabernet Sauvignon and 3% Cabernet Franc, all sourced from their high-elevation vineyards on Spring Mountain) is the deepest, richest wine of the entire portfolio, with an opaque purple color and a super-pure nose of crème de cassis and blueberries. The wine is rich, full-bodied, nicely textured, and very long in the finish, with ripe tannins. It can be drunk now or cellared for another 15 or more years.
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Wine & Spirits
Michael Keenan and his team selected this reserve from the Big K vineyard, where their estate cabernet sauvignon vines were 17 years old; Keenan attributes the wine’s incipient complexities to their maturity. This has the elegant austerity and youthful restraint of a wine grown at high elevations, catching the morning sun. The flavors start out black, revealing hints of floral strawberries and cardamom. Savory and nuanced, this wine’s structural tension will carry it for a decade or more in the cellar.
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While the beauty and history of the land are appealing, it is the richness of the soils that makes the hillside perfect for an estate winery. These soils are, in great measure, responsible for the dramatic intensity of the fruit associated with the ultra-premium wines produced at Robert Keenan Winery.
Keenan completed a solar power system on their property that went on-line in 2007. The system supplies all of the estate’s energy needs, including the winery, administrative offices, visitor hospitality area, and the homes located on the property. The Napa Valley Vintners have recognized Keenan as a “green” winery, which they proudly announce on the back labels: Solar Powered and Sustainably Farmed.
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.
Above the town of St. Helena on the eastern slopes of the Mayacamas Mountains sits the Spring Mountain District.
A dynamic region, its vineyards, cut by numerous springs and streams, vary in elevation, slope and aspect. Soils differ throughout with over 20 distinct types inside of the 8,600 acres that define the appellation. Within that area, only about 1,000 are planted to vineyards. Predominantly farmed by small, independent producers, the region currently has just over 30 wineries.
During the growing season, late afternoon Pacific Ocean breezes reach the Spring Mountain vineyards, which sit at between 400 and 1,200 feet. Daytime temperatures during mid summer and early fall remain slightly cooler than those of the valley floor.
Spring Mountain soils—volcanic matter and sedimentary rock—create intense but balanced reds with lush and delicate tannins. The area excels with Bordeaux varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot and in some cooler spots, Chardonnay.