Winemaker Notes
Aromas are diverse and complex, with no single primary scent standing above the rest. Some of the more subtle facets are beginning to surface: wet stone, graphite, leather, and fresh spices. Brighter notes create a tension in the nose that then transfers to the palate. In the beginning it is gentle and silky, developing slowly and purposefully into a synthesis of minerality, freshness, and vibrancy. The wine shows its potential for aging with a balance of structure and lightness, as well as a latent potential only to be revealed with time.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2016 Estate is pure perfection and a legend in the making. Featuring incredible purity of fruit as well as powerful notes of crème de cassis, gravelly earth, cedar pencil, and chocolate, it has the fresher, pure, classic style of this great vintage front and center. With full-bodied richness and depth, it has an almost Château Latour-like stature and majestic quality, and it should have a similar evolution, requiring 7-8 years to hit its early drink window yet evolve for 20-30 years or more.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Deep garnet-purple, the 2016 Promontory comes barreling out of the glass with bold scents of black cherries, blueberry pie and licorice, leading to a slowly emerging core of crème de cassis, dark chocolate, black soil and truffles plus touches of cumin seed, mossy bark and beef drippings. The full-bodied palate is densely packed with muscular fruit, backed by a rock-solid structure of very firm, exquisitely ripe, grainy tannins and fantastic tension. The finish is both powerful and beautifully nuanced, hedonic and cerebrally gratifying. This singularly stunning expression of Napa Valley is to be released by the winery in 2021.
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Wine Spectator
Shows solid structure and a slightly reticent, dark fruit profile, with currant, fig and blackberry notes allied to a graphite edge, while tobacco and melted black licorice fill in through the finish. This offers sneaky depth and is still in need of some cellaring.
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.