Winemaker Notes
A complex bouquet of wild berries, cassis, cigar box, and mountain laurel prefaces a savoury, full-bodied wine with a three-dimensional, layered chassis of fine-grained tannin and a nicely reserved core with good depth and bright acidity. This dependably age-worthy cuvée can look forward to three decades of evolution in the cellar.
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
The rocky minerality of the region shows from first sniff through to the lengthy finish. The earthiness is beautifully offset by fleshy red and black fruit, with spice-infused cherry, bittersweet chocolate, espresso and vanilla notes. For all its youthful intensity, the palate is remarkably fresh and bright.
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The Somm Journal
Toasty plum and herbal nose; silky and generous, with more tangy plum and toasted oak; clean, pure, and classic.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate is a success given the challenges: a stressed, end-of-drought vintage with a challenging fruit set that resulted in a 50% drop in production. The nose is intense and earth-driven, with aromas of compacted earth, forest floor, gravel and iodine coming to the foreground immediately. The palate is classically proportioned with good concentration, a lovely spine of acidity and fine-grained, blooming tannins. While exchanging a bit of the drying, complex intensity found in a more easy-going harvest for a damp, earthy rusticity, a vintage like this shows the strength of the Cabernet from this property.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2015 Mount Eden Cabernet Sauvignon has enjoyed a long history of being one of California's most stellar wines in this category. TASTING NOTES: This wine is well-built and made to last. Its bold aromas and flavors of ripe cherries and wood show up as youthful and unevolved. Give it at least half dozen years in the cellar. (Tasted: August 19, 2019, San Francisco, CA)
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Wine Enthusiast
This is savory style of Cab from a mountainside site, starting with aromas of roast beef, crushed asphalt and dark seared elderberry fruits. Black plum and more elderberry show on the sip, but the focus of the smoothed out tannic profile is showcasing rocky soil-driven flavors, with hints of olive and charred meat toward the finish.
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Wine & Spirits
Jeffrey Patterson manages generations of vines at Mount Eden, tracing their lineage to 19th-century cuttings, purported taken at Château Margaux. His vineyard, at an elevation of 1,800 feet on an east-facing slope, produced a vibrant 2015, cool and sleek in its flavors of red and black fruit skin. The wine’s zesty energy seems to awaken with air, driving the texture and flavor through a lively 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.
A rugged and topographically diverse cool-climate appellation with a rich history, the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA stretches from Half Moon Bay, just south of San Francisco, to the northern border of Monterey County. Elevations range from 800 feet to upwards of 3,000 and microclimates vary substantially depending on which side of the mountains the vineyards lie; cool ocean winds and fog play an important role here. This can be a challenging region in which to grow grapes, but it is well worth the effort. Santa Cruz Mountains wines are noted for balanced acidity levels, often showing great aging potential. Wine has been made here since the 1800s, most notably from the legendary Ridge Vineyards, whose Monte Bello vineyard garners international admiration.
Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon are the stars of this region, while Merlot and Zinfandel also perform quite well. Organic and sustainable vineyard practices are becoming increasingly common.