Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Dark, plush and elegant, this wine defines style. It's fashionably dry and ripe, with blackcurrant flavors and low acids. Oak adds vanilla and sweet, woody tannins but does not overwhelm. It's what consumers are looking for in an expensive California Cabernet. You could object that it's generically good. It lacks a sense of ground, of individuality, but that's tilting at windmills.
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Wine & Spirits
The 99 vintage produced youthfully brisk wines at Pride's vineyard on top of Spring Mountain. This cabernet is all red fruits - cranberry, cherry and red plum. Yet all that fruit needs cellar time to absorb the hard edges of structure, all the alcohol, the four square tannin, the edgy acidity. The purple black concentration of the color suggests that evolution could be long and well worth the wait.
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.