Professional Ratings

• 100 Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
  COMMENTARY: When the 1982 Spottswoode Cabernet Sauvignon was released, I had never even heard of this soon-to-become iconic winery. I was at a wine event in the middle of San Francisco Bay, and a fellow retailer mentioned to me, "I just got a wine that you can't get!" His smirk was memorable. Shortly after, I received a call from the winery asking me, "Would you like some 1982 Spottswoode Cabernet? We have five cases saved for you." That was the beginning of my love affair with Spottswoode Vineyard & Winery. Last night, our love grew to another level when I blind-tasted the 2015 vintage with three other world-class wines. TASTING NOTES: This wine started with gangbusters, but it took me a moment to separate it from the other three wines. It continued to grow and gain incredible dimension and now becomes one of the top five wines I have ever tasted in five decades in the wine business. The wine is bright, wild, pure, and offers incredible balance and length. Its enchanting aromas and flavors of ripe fruit and dried leaves, explode onto the palate and last forever. Pair it with an evening with your best friends and an excellent meal. (Tasted: June 18, 2019, San Francisco, CA)
• 99 Jeb Dunnuck
  A more exuberant, sexy wine than the 2014, yet still in the house style emphasizing elegance and purity, the 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate knocks it out of the park with its huge nose of crème de cassis, plums, Asian spices, scorched earth, tobacco leaf and graphite. This flows to a full-bodied, opulent, incredibly concentrated wine reminiscent of the 2013 on steroids. Full-bodied, with building tannin, integrated acidity, a stacked mid-palate, and a great finish, this is a tour de force in Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon from one of the greats. It has three to four decades of life ahead of it.
• 97 Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

  This bottle of Spottswoode's 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon showed better than the last one I reviewed, with more voluptuous fruit and an expressive, generous personality. Perhaps being double-decanted 20 minutes ahead of service helped. Prominent cedar notes join prune plums, black cherries and a hint of dark chocolate. Full-bodied, this rich, dense and weighty wine closes with a velvety mouthfeel, great length and a seductive touch of licorice.

• 97 Tasting Panel

  The Spottswoode estate has been farmed Biodynamically since 2008, thanks to the efforts of Winemaker Aron Weinkauf and President/CEO Beth Novak Milliken (before that, it had been organically farmed since 1985). This is a wonderful quote from Weinkauf: “While Biodynamics is not something you can directly taste, you can taste what it allows us to do. We can pick less ripe with lovely flavor development and energy in the grapes, which in turn lets us preserve the complexity that defines our wines.” A fragrant array of lilac-tipped blue fruit combines with slate and tobacco as red fruit kissed by chocolate and fresh soil streams forth on the mid-palate. Still young at heart, this is one for the ages. 

• 97 Wine Enthusiast
  Fresh on the palate and floral on the nose in a bouquet of rose, lavender and crushed herb, this perennially beautiful, delicate wine benefits from the addition of 7% Cabernet Franc and 3% Petit Verdot, also from the organically farmed estate. Pencil shavings, coffee and a touch of tobacco add to its savory, earthy nature, contributing to its overall structure and elegance. Enjoy best from 2025 through 2030 if you're able to wait.
  Cellar Selection
• 95 James Suckling
  Glorious aromas of blackcurrant, sage and blackberry. Stone undertones. Full body, round and silky with a focused and bright finish of dark berry and mint. Goes on for minutes. Such finesse and balance. Coolness. Better in 2020.
• 95 Wine Spectator
  Features a gorgeous core of dark plum, blackberry and fig compote flavors that meld wonderfully with subtle anise, roasted apple wood and briar notes. A light tug of slatelike minerality through the finish adds to the range and depth. Well-built. Best from 2022 through 2040.
• 93 Wine & Spirits

  Aron Weinkauf makes this wine at the Novak family estate in the western benchlands of St. Helena. This is prime cabernet country and the 40 acres of vines consistently produce one of the region’s most elegant wines, this vintage more concentrated than most, balancing richly perfumed blueand blackberry fruit with the silkiness of its ripe tannins. Oak lends the wine a spicy perfume, as well as a toasty brioche scent, while the fruit holds freshness. This is the kind of grand Napa Valley cabernet that should be reaching its peak around ten years from the vintage.