Mount Peak Sentinel Cabernet Sauvignon 2015
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The Sentinel Cabernet Sauvignon is named for the shield-shaped block that casts a watchful eye on the entrance to Monte Rosso Vineyard. It’s a beautiful deep crimson color and a muscular, mouthfilling wine with full tannins and intense, concentrated fruit. Savory aromas mix with lavender and dark fruit, leading to a rich mouthfeel with waves of dark cherry, blackberry and a touch of spice. The extend finish melds the fruit together with hints of nutty toasted oak, pecan praline and caramel. The full, balanced structure gives this Cabernet tremendous aging potential.
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Wine Enthusiast
This is a juicy, wellintegrated and softly textured red wine, powerfully built in ripe fruit and tannin. Blueberry, cassis and red currant complement the savory mocha edge before a pronounced finish of toasted oak.
Other Vintages
2018-
James
Suckling
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James
Suckling
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Wilfred
Wong -
Robert
Parker
The Mount Peak Winery story begins more than a century ago at the celebrated Monte Rosso Vineyard, and culminates with the revival of Mount Peak Winery, a vestige of one of California’s ghost wineries. Their wines are inspired by this great place, and they pay tribute to the extraordinary winery that once stood there by capturing its enduring spirit in their wine.
Built in 1886, Mount Peak was a marvel of innovation. The three-story, gravity-flow winery was built from the rocks pulled from the dry-farmed Monte Rosso Vineyard. Though it quickly emerged as one of California’s top ten producers, the start of Prohibition in 1920 forced the winery to shutter its doors. Like many of California’s pioneering wineries, Mount Peak was abandoned to the elements, a true ghost winery to never reopen. For decades the winery lay silent, as wild vines and towering fig trees sought to reclaim it stone by stone.
More than 130 years later, only the ruins of the winery remain, yet the vineyard’s still-thriving vines have persisted – standing above the fog line. The ghost winery and world-class Monte Rosso Vineyard are perched at nearly 1,300 feet along the spine of the Mayacamas Mountains, straddling Napa and Sonoma valleys. Monte Rosso’s steep hillsides, robed in bright red, iron-rich soils, are set against a dramatic backdrop of manzanita and madrone trees under the expanse of a piercing blue sky.
While Sonoma County is acclaimed—and rightfully so—for its Chardonnays, Pinot Noirs, and Zinfandels, it also produces exceptional Cabernet Sauvignon. Of the region’s 18 American Viticultural Areas, only a handful produce top-notch Cabernet Sauvignon. These appellations include Alexander Valley, Knights Valley, Sonoma Valley and Dry Creek Valley. Sonoma Cabernet Sauvignons made in these appellations can offer a complex array of aromas and flavors. Fruit notes such as blackberry, blackcurrant, cassis, black cherry and raspberry often are accompanied by hints of graphite, dusty earth, cigar box, toast and vanilla. The varietal has a rich history in Sonoma, and some of these Cabernet Sauvignons and Cabernet-based blends rival the best from Napa Valley.