Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
This distinctive version leads with pine forest, sweet bay leaf and savory notes, with a core of steeped currant and bitter plum fruit, plus ample tobacco and warm stone notes in the background. The finish is chiseled in feel, with racy acidity taking just as prominent of a role as tannic grip. With range, character and energy to spare, this should cruise in the cellar.
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Wine Enthusiast
This is an earthy, classically structured wine of great pedigree and style. It goes against the grain of bigger and riper wines. Tangy red fruit, sage and pencil shavings make for an expressive, lengthy and complex experience of elegance and grace. This wine will do well in the cellar.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon is floral and perfumed, with delicate hints of mint and sage entwined around redcurrants and cherries. It's medium-bodied but concentrated, with a ripe, velvety texture and a firm, astringent finish. Give it a few years to mellow before pulling a cork. Best After 2025.
Rating: 93+
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Wine & Spirits
This savory cabernet gains its mountaingrown complexity from 50 acres of vines that rise from 1,800 to 2,400 feet—and a harvest that lasted 34 days, ending in mid-October. There’s also the range of fermentation vessels used by winemakers Braiden Albrecht and Andy Erickson (consulting)—cement, stainless steel and neutral puncheons—to consider. Over the course of 32 months of aging in large-format oak and neutral barrels, this all integrated toward smoky mineral notes and rich morel mushroom depths. Lasting and fi rm, it’s designed for long aging.
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.
Centered at the peak for which it is named, Mount Veeder is Napa’s largest sub-AVA. But even though the entire appellation spreads over 16,000 acres, vineyards cover a mere 1,000. Scattered among Douglas firs and bristlecone pines, Mount Veeder vineyards extend south from the upper elevations of the Mayacamas Mountains—the highest point at 2,400 feet—to the border of the Carneros region. Less than 25 wineries produce wine from Mount Veeder fruit.
Winemaking began early in this appellation. In 1864, Captain Stelham Wing presented the first Mount Veeder wine to the Napa County Fair; it came from today’s Wing Canyon Vineyard. Prohibition, of course, halted winemaking and viticulture wasn’t revitalized until the founding of Mayacamas Vineyards in 1951 and Bernstein Vineyards in 1964.
The Bernstein Vineyards was actually home to the first Petit Verdot in California, planted in 1975. Today most of the Petit Verdot in Napa Valley originates from this vineyard.
Rocky volcanic clay and ancient seabed matter dominate Mount Veeder soils—perfect for Bordeaux varieties. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Malbec, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot enjoy spectacular success. These varieties produce wines rich in brambly blackberry and black cherry fruit with herbal and floral aromatics. Structures are moderate to assertive and wines have great staying power.
Chardonnay from Mount Veeder is lush, full and balanced mineral and fresh citrus flavors.