Winemaker Notes
Blackcurrant, dark chocolate, blueberry, ripe cherry, mint, tea, and subtle cedar notes define this complex and brooding wine. The texture is intense and layered, with a corset of velvety tannin that underscores its pure mountain pedigree.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Composed of 96% Cabernet Sauvignon and 4% Petit Verdot, the 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve comes from 84% Sonoma County and 16% Napa County. Deep garnet-purple in color, it charges out of the glass with bold notes of crème de cassis, redcurrant jelly and Black Forest cake followed by nuances of red roses, cinnamon stick, unsmoked cigars and dusty soil with a touch of oolong tea. The medium to full-bodied palate is chock-full of mouth-coating red and black fruit preserves, supported by ripe, finely grained tannins and beautiful freshness, finishing long and perfumed.
Rating: 95+ -
Jeb Dunnuck
The 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve does well in the vintage and has a beautiful elegance and purity that's already hard to resist. Lots of blackcurrants, spice, candied violets, tobacco, and a touch of chocolate give way to a medium to full-bodied, flawlessly balanced Cabernet delivering great tannins (which is not a given in this vintage), a great mid-palate, and the structure and overall class to evolve for 20 years or more. It's a beautiful 2017 well worth seeking out.
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Connoisseurs' Guide
Surpassingly rich and marked by all kinds of sweetness, but wonderfully layered and complex without ever being at all candied and showing loads of juicy, currant-like fruit at its core and creamy oak in abundance, Pride’s 2017 Reserve Cabernet is so very showy right now that it is easy to overlook its exceptional, very ageworthy construction. Give it time, at least another half-dozen years to grow into its refined best, and bet big that it will be all the more fascinating yet once ten or twelve have passed.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2017 Pride Mountain Vineyards Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon powers itself onto the palate. TASTING NOTES: This wine burst forth with powerful aromas and flavors of black fruit and oak. Pair it with strong cheeses after a long and satisfying dinner. (Tasted: June 22, 2021, San Francisco, CA)
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.
Reaching up California's coastline and into its valleys north of San Francisco, the North Coast AVA includes six counties: Marin, Solano, Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino and Lake. While Napa and Sonoma enjoy most of the glory, the rest produce no shortage of quality wines in an intriguing and diverse range of styles.
Climbing up the state's rugged coastline, the chilly Marin County, just above the City and most of Sonoma County, as well as Mendocino County on the far north end of the North Coast successfully grow cool-climate varieties like Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and in some spots, Riesling. Inland Lake County, on the other hand, is considerably warmer, and Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel and Sauvignon Blanc produce some impressive wines with affordable price tags.