Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
This has everything: deep color, rich, ripe aromas and bold fruit flavors, a velvety texture, depth and balance. It's delicious now but will improve for years.--Spottswoode vertical.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
A strong showing for this Cabernet, Spottswoode's 1986 exhibits a youthful, unevolved, opaque ruby/purple color with some garnet creeping in at the edge. The sweet nose of cassis, lead pencil, and toast exhibits high class. Rich, medium to full-bodied, with moderately high tannin, this is a young, backward, delicious Cabernet Sauvignon that is just beginning to reveal its full personality. This purely made wine is capable of lasting another 10-15+ years. The Chateau Margaux of Napa.
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.