Winemaker Notes
Blend: 97% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3% Petit Verdot
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve is flat-out gorgeous, and I’d put this up with the best in the vintage. Full-bodied, deep, layered, and plush, with an incredibly sexy, layered style, it offers up a crazily complex bouquet of red and black fruits, iron, flowers, and olive tapenade. The tannins are completely integrated, it’s flawlessly balanced, and drinking so well today it’s impossible to resist.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve (98% Cabernet Sauvignon and 2% Petit Verdot) is a nearly impenetrable purple black color, and offers a shockingly intense and compelling set of aromatics, consisting of blueberry and blackberry liqueur, charcoal, incense and spring flowers. Extremely full, massive, and highly extracted, but not broodish or rustic, this is a sensational wine, with loads of blue and black fruits, great definition, vibrant acidity, and ripe but substantial tannins. This is a 40- to 50-year wine, which is somewhat unusual for this vintage. It is approachable now, but give it 7-8 years of cellaring at minimum.
Rating: 98+
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.
Home to some of the most sought-after Cabernet Sauvignon in America, Napa Valley’s Oakville district stretches across the center of Napa's valley floor and foothills between the Vaca and Mayacamas Mountains. This AVA is home to the legendary To Kalon Vineyard and Martha's Vineyard, as well as many powerhouse wineries including Screaming Eagle, Silver Oak, Robert Mondavi, Opus One, Far Niente and Groth.
The climate is generally warm and agreeable, resulting in year after year of favorable vintages. Summer days see a gentle tug of war between warmer inland air and the cool air coming in from the San Pablo Bay, creating an ideal environment to grow red varieties. Oakville's diverse soils, namely ancient sea bedrock, clay and gravel, are well-drained, and perfect for high-caliber viticulture.
Cabernet here is often bottled varietally but is also popular in Bordeaux Blends. Oakville wines are known for their silky, sensual textures, structured tannins, dark and brooding fruit and lovely aromatics. These age-worthy and prestigious wines are favored by collectors throughout the world.