Winemaker Notes
This wine is plush, rich and elegant. It seduces with forward fruit (picture a bowl of ripe berries), brown sugar mocha and buttery pastry. The 2007 is a big,structured wine that is beautifully integrated. Voluptuous and balanced with delicious concentration—this wine is the complete package!
Blend: 97% Cabernet Sauvignon and 3% Cabernet Franc
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Retasting the 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon was a treat as I believe it is the greatest Cabernet Sauvignon Spottswoode has ever produced. Wonderful aromas of black raspberries, blueberries, black currants and flowers jump from the glass of this dark ruby/purple-tinged Cabernet. As I have stated before, if Chateau Margaux were in Napa Valley, it would be Spottswoode. The purity, balance and delicacy of this wine are impressive. Perhaps slightly less dense and powerful than the 2008, the 2007 is flawlessly put together with nothing out of place. It, too, should age effortlessly for 20-30+ years.
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Wine Spectator
Smooth, rich and understated, offering a subtle mix of ripe, full-bodied currant, blackberry and wild berry flavors that are deftly balanced, with a dash of cedary dill-laced oak. Slow to unfold, but in doing so offers great depth, concentration and complexity. Best from 2012 through 2022. Tasted twice, with consistent notes. 1,729 cases made.
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Wine & Spirits
The Novak family farms 40 acres of vines behind their Victorian house in western St. Helena, producing cabernet that’s notable for its elegance rather than overt richness or power. There’s coolness to this 2007, with scents that hint at the forests of the Mayacamas. The fruit is bright with cranberry edges, red cherry, plum and floral notes, lasting with minerality. The balance and refreshing savor marks this as a wine that will age with grace.
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.