Winemaker Notes
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Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The utterly profound 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve reveals abundant notes of licorice, creme de cassis, unsmoked high class cigar tobacco, and toasty oak. Full-bodied with fabulous depth, richness, and texture as well as a multilayered mouthfeel, sweet tannins, and loads of potential, this stunning wine is capable of lasting 15-20 years.
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Wine Spectator
This defines finesse. Displays amazingly complex aromas of spice, black currant, black licorice, cedar and hazelnut. Full-bodied, creamy and polished, tightly wound and focused, ending with a long, persistent finish that reverberates with flavor.
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Wine Enthusiast
This is one of the least drinkable of Pride Mountain’s new red wines, simply because it needs time. It’s all primary fruit vs. oak now, with unintegrated blackberry, cherry, currant and mocha flavors fighting it out with smoky caramelized wood and vanilla. Tannins lurk in the background, ready to embrace both sides. Made solidly in the modern cult style of extreme ripeness and high alcohol, it’s a compelling wine ... Cellar Selection.
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Connoisseurs' Guide
As high in ripeness as any of the Pride Reserve bottlings, the 2006 is a very big and mouthfilling wine that is unstinting in richness. It is, however, not quite so tough or as tight as its youth might predict, and, while its tannins are evident, they are not at all abrasive.
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.