Winemaker Notes
The 2015 Spring Mountain Cabernet offers up complex aromas and firm structure, with richly perfumed notes of mulberries, incense, flowers and spice. This inky, elegant wine offers finesse, restraint and intensity, all wrapped into one.
Blend: 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Cabernet Franc, and 7% Petit Verdot.
Professional Ratings
-
Jeb Dunnuck
A blend of 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 18% Cabernet Franc and the rest Petit Verdot, the 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Spring Mountain offers a classic Mountain fruit profile with its complex aromatics and fresh, focused, chiseled and structured style on the palate. Mulberries, incense, exotic flowers, and spice all leap from the glass of this inky colored Cabernet Sauvignon, and it’s medium to full-bodied, structured and vibrant on the palate. Brought up in 80% new French oak, it has loads of potential but needs 2-4 years of bottle age.
Rating: 94+ -
James Suckling
This is a little extracted with blackberry and tar character. Full body and chewy tannins. Juicy finish. Just the rich spice, chocolate and ripe fruit at the end. A blend of 75% cabernet sauvignon, 18% cabernet franc, 7% petit verdot. Better in 2019.
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.
Above the town of St. Helena on the eastern slopes of the Mayacamas Mountains sits the Spring Mountain District.
A dynamic region, its vineyards, cut by numerous springs and streams, vary in elevation, slope and aspect. Soils differ throughout with over 20 distinct types inside of the 8,600 acres that define the appellation. Within that area, only about 1,000 are planted to vineyards. Predominantly farmed by small, independent producers, the region currently has just over 30 wineries.
During the growing season, late afternoon Pacific Ocean breezes reach the Spring Mountain vineyards, which sit at between 400 and 1,200 feet. Daytime temperatures during mid summer and early fall remain slightly cooler than those of the valley floor.
Spring Mountain soils—volcanic matter and sedimentary rock—create intense but balanced reds with lush and delicate tannins. The area excels with Bordeaux varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot and in some cooler spots, Chardonnay.