Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
From a site in St. Helena, the 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Hayne Vineyard (aged 16 months in 51% new French oak) is a more open-knit, supple, textured red that has plenty of cassis, raspberry, toasted spice, and graphite aromas and flavors. With compelling purity of fruit, building minerality, bright acidity, and an understated elegance, this beautiful 2015 needs 4-5 years of bottle age and will keep for two decades.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Displaying a deep garnet-purple color, the 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Hayne Vineyard has loads of oak, blackberry preserves and warm plums with touches of cola, bergamot and Indian spices. Medium to full-bodied with a good amount of exotic spices and black fruit, it has firm, grainy tannins and great length. It just needs time for that oak to marry! 94+ points
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James Suckling
Crushed stones, bark, walnuts, forest floor, cedar and iodine. Full body, lots of dusty tannins, an impressive entry of acidity and a long, mineral-driven finish. Drink in 2020.
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Wine Enthusiast
With a strong tone of oak and tar on the nose, this vineyarddesignate wine offers well-integrated power and intensity. Fresh red currant greets the palate within a framework of concentrated depth and extraction, with a lasting 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.
St. Helena is in the heart of the Napa Valley, nestled between Calistoga to the north and Rutherford on its southern border. On its western side, the Mayacamas Mountains guard it from the cooling effects of the Pacific Ocean; to its east stand the Vaca Mountains. In conjunction, these mountain ranges serve to lock in summer daytime heat. But in the evening, cool air from the San Pablo Bay funnels up through the valley, creating very chilly nights. It isn’t uncommon for temperatures to drop 50 degrees, a shift that promotes a balance of sugar ripeness and acidity in wine grapes.
St. Helena contains a plethora of different soil types in a small area, which have been enhanced over centuries by rain runoff from both mountain ranges. Its vineyards cover a variety of terrain, spreading across the bucolic valley floor and its benchlands.
These ideal topographic and climatic growing conditions easily caught the attention of early winemaking pioneers. In fact, St. Helena is the birthplace of Napa Valley’s commercial wine industry. Dr. Crane founded his cellar in 1859, David Fulton in 1860 and Charles Krug in 1861.
Today there are no less than 400 separate vineyards planted within the 12,000 acres that make up the St. Helena appellation.
Revered most for its red wines based on Bordeaux varieties, namely Cabernet Sauvignon, the St. Helena appellation is also a source of superior Syrah, Zinfandel and Sauvignon blanc.