Winemaker Notes
Deep ruby. Aromas of deep cherry, black plum, and caramel with hints of dried sage and cedar. Flavors of ripe blackberry and cherry preserves framed by mocha and baking spices. Layers of abundant fruit, dried herbs, and sweet oak. Seamless, integrated tannins create a rich structure and reflect a mountain personality.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Plenty of blueberry and chocolate aromas and flavors. It’s full-bodied with round, fresh tannins. Lot of blue fruit and walnuts. Then crushed stones with the fruit at the finish. Flavorful, yet not overdone. Give this four or five years to come around. Try after 2025.
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Wine Spectator
Solid, with a loamy edge guiding the core of warmed cassis and plum reduction flavors along. Subtle sweet bay leaf, apple wood and anise notes fill in on the finish. Drink now through 2032.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2018 Mount Veeder Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon is firmly built and nicely structured on the palate. TASTING NOTES: This wine flourishes with aromas and flavors of black fruit, tar, and earth, with a suggestion of oak. Pair it with a grilled, well-marbled ribeye. (Tasted: September 1, 2021, San Francisco, CA)
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Decanter
Mount Veeder offers a higher level of consistency and relative value across an impressive array of price points than other Napa mountain appellations. At the lower end of this spectrum, Mount Veeder winery has made a complete and multifaceted example of this unique Napa subregion. Blue fruited, herbal and rustic on the nose with a direct, to-the-point texture, finishing with a typical, Mount Veeder brambly-edge. 82% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Merlot, 6% Petit Verdot, 4% Malbec. Drinking Window 2023 - 2031
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
A blend of 82% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Merlot, 6% Petit Verdot and 4% Malbec, the 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon has a deep garnet-purple color. The nose absolutely sings of warm blackcurrants, black cherries and mulberries plus fragrant suggestions of chocolate box, lilacs and licorice. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is laden with energetic, crunchy black fruit flavors, framed by ripe, fine-grained tannins and loads of freshness, finishing long and perfumed. What a bargain price for this classic Napa Cab beauty! Rating: 92+
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Tasting Panel
This powerful and dark yet youthful red is full-bodied and concentrated with black fruit, underbrush, and tobacco-laden cedar. Sturdy, dusty tannins are wound tightly around notes of pencil shavings and plum skin.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Another outstanding wine from this estate, the 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon offers up medium to full-bodied aromas and flavors of spiced plums, blackcurrants, new leather, incense, and tobacco. It's nicely textured, has a balanced, layered mouthfeel, ripe tannins, and, I suspect, the class to evolve nicely for 10-12 years.
One of the most prestigious wines of the world capable of great power and grace, Napa Valley Cabernet is a leading force in the world of fine, famous, collectible red wine. Today the Napa Valley and Cabernet Sauvignon are so intrinsically linked that it is difficult to discuss one without the other. But it wasn’t until the 1970s that this marriage came to light; sudden international recognition rained upon Napa with the victory of the Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars 1973 Cabernet Sauvignon in the 1976 Judgement of Paris.
Cabernet Sauvignon undoubtedly dominates Napa Valley today, covering half of the land under vine, commanding the highest prices per ton and earning the most critical acclaim. Cabernet Sauvignon’s structure, acidity, capacity to thrive in multiple environs and ability to express nuances of vintage make it perfect for Napa Valley where incredible soil and geographical diversity are found and the climate is perfect for grape growing. Within the Napa Valley lie many smaller sub-AVAs that express specific characteristics based on situation, slope and soil—as a perfect example, Rutherford’s famous dust or Stags Leap District's tart cherry flavors.