Malk Family Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon 2013
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Robert
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Wilfred
Wong -
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon has slightly more opaque purple color than the 2012, beautiful bluer-fruit characteristics, with black raspberries, blueberries, slightly more concentration and greater raw materials. Nevertheless, it’s full-bodied and capable of 15 or more years of aging potential with its terrific purity and symmetry. This is a sleeper producer, and I’m happy to have tasted them. Both wines tip the scales at 14.5% alcohol.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: Sometimes we can get too myopic about AVA descriptions and forget that each wine may have its individual and distinctive nuances—some insignificant and others quite important. This example from the excellent Stags Leap District shows an extra richness that I am not always accustomed to seeing, but I am glad to see it, for in this wine the extra richness works well. TASTING NOTES: The 2013 Malk explodes with a beautiful combination of black fruits, savory oak, and dark earth notes. This wine richness requires a big, fat juicy ribeye as a meal partner. (Tasted: February 15, 2018, San Francisco, CA)
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Wine Enthusiast
This is a dense, juicy and satisfying wine from start to finish, featuring finely textured, soft tannins around remarkable structure. Cinnamon and clove persist through wilder elements of pencil lead and ripe cassis, showing the appellation's propensity for hitting you from one side with power, and from the other side, ever so discreetly, grace.
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The inspiration behind the Malk Family Vineyards logo was their beloved Staffordshire Bull Terrier, Griffin, who recently passed away at the age of 15 1/2. The complex layers of his personality displayed a bold yet colorful character, which exemplify the attributes of the wine his portrait graces. Brian and Nancy intend to uphold his honor with every vintage.
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.
Legend has it that quick and nimble stags would escape the indigenous hunters of southern Napa Valley through the landmark palisades that sit just northeast of the current city of Napa. As a result, the area was given the name, Stags Leap. While its grape-growing history dates back to the mid-1800s, winemaking didn’t really take off until the mid-1970s after a small but pivotal blind tasting called the Judgement of Paris.
When a 1973 Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon won first place against its high-profile Bordeaux contenders, like Chateau Mouton Rothschild and Chateau Haut-Brion, international attention to the Stags Leap District of Napa Valley escalated rapidly.
The vineyards in this one-of-a-kind wine growing region receive hot afternoon air reflecting off of its eastern palisade formation. In combination with the cool evening breezes from the San Pablo Bay just south, this becomes an optimal environment for grape growing. While many varieties could thrive here, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot dominate with virtually no others, save for a spot or two of Syrah.
Stags Leap soils—eroded volcanic and old river sediments—encourage well established root systems and result in complex, terroir-driven wines. Stags Leap District reds have a distinct sour cherry and black berry character with baking spice and dried earth aromas, and supple tannins.