Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The brilliant 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon Vintner's Select boasts copious aromas of lead pencil shavings, spring flowers, blueberries, black raspberries, and cassis. Full-bodied and powerful, this dense ruby/purple tinged offering is a tour de force in Cabernet Sauvignon. It possesses enough sweet tannin to provide early accessibility, but it should age beautifully for 10-15+ years.
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Wine Enthusiast
Big, powerful and high in alcohol. The grapes evidently got super-ripe, giving the wine massive blackberry and chocolate-covered raisin flavors that have been liberally enhanced with smoky new oak. Tannins are pretty tight, coming from Pride’s 2100 foot elevation spanning the Napa-Sonoma border. A little awkward now. Give it a few years.
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Wine Spectator
Smooth, rich and creamy, with firm yet elegant dried currant and blackberry flavors that are focused and lively, gaining complexity and depth on the long finish. Drink now through 2012. 400 cases made.
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.