Winemaker Notes
Youthful energy and concentration take center stage for the 2017. Quintessential notes of brambly blue fruit and graphite complement warm oak spices and hints of plum, celery seed, and cocoa powder. A weighty and compelling core lead to a layered depth that will follow this wine through the long and dynamic life that it is destined for.
Professional Ratings
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2017 Spottswoode Cabernet Sauvignon is magnificent. TASTING NOTES: This wine is powerful, yet thoughtful, and restrained. Its strength is staying composed and elegant while showing us the best attributes of St. Helena Cabernet. Enjoy its aromas and flavors of beautifully ripened fruit, savory spices, graphite, and licorice. Pair it with aged cheeses and thought-provoking conversations. (Tasted: May 13, 2020, San Francisco, CA)
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Jeb Dunnuck
Looking at the 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate, which was bottled two months prior to my tasting, it too has a Château Margaux-like complexity and elegance, with beautiful notes of crème de cassis, sandalwood, dried flowers, tobacco leaf, and lead pencil. Harvested all pre-fire, it hits the palate with medium to full-bodied richness, silky tannins, and remarkable purity, all making for a quintessential Spottswoode that’s going to benefit from 3-5 years of bottle age and keep for 20+ years.
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James Suckling
A soft, velvety red with dark-berry, blackcurrant and plum aromas and flavors. Medium-bodied, creamy and delicious. Pretty tension of fruit and tannins. Very refined. 89% cabernet sauvignon, 7% cabernet franc and 4% petit verdot. Drink or hold.
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Wine Enthusiast
This is from the producer’s organically farmed estate and blended with 7% Cabernet Franc and 4% Petit Verdot. A beautiful, elegant and youthful wine, it offers seam-less texture and integration, quiet hints of blue-berry and black currant and a hint of cocoa powder. Gentle in nature and approach, it has a complex depth and more to say. Enjoy best from 2027–2037. Cellar Selection.
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Wine Spectator
Features a sleek and racy edge, with damson plum, bitter cherry and black currant fruit working together, revealing pinpoints of savory, sage and iron scattered throughout. The mouthwatering finish shows the vintage's slightly brambly grip, but with superior integration and energy to most of its peers. Best from 2022 through 2038
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Lighter in hue and less generously fruited than many other recent vintages, Spottswoode's 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon is minty and red-fruited, with cherries dominating the nose and medium-bodied palate. In this tasting, it came across as slightly herbal and astringent on the finish, so perhaps it's merely going through a closed phase in its evolution and will improve from here. Best After 2023. Rating: 91+
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.