Winemaker Notes
100% Cabernet Sauvignon
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve (100% varietal) reveals a deep ruby/purple color as well as classic notes of crème de cassis, black raspberries, graphite, and lead pencil shavings. It's beautifully concentrated, has classic Cabernet character, ripe tannin, and plenty of length. In short, it's a terrific Cabernet Sauvignon that can be enjoyed today or cellared for 10-15 years.
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Wine & Spirits
Chris Louton joined St. Francis in 2013, focusing on Bordeaux varieties after seven years at Beringer. He blended this reserve from hillside vineyards and it’s by far the best cabernet we’ve tasted from the winery. It has clarity and freshness to its black-cherry flavors, sustaining the wine’s brightness over layers of firm tannins. The tannins are heady and rich, bringing some toasty oak into the mix, but they don’t diminish the wine’s detail. A great steakhouse pour, this will develop well over the next several years.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve is scented of cedar, cigars, cassis, earth, dried herbs and chargrill. Medium to full-bodied with firm, grainy tannins, it offers a good core of pure fruit, finishing long.
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Wine Enthusiast
Dense with a thread of underlying acidity, this reserve-tier wine offers bold flavors of blackberry, black cherry, dust and cocoa powder. Lush and concentrated in fullbodied intensity, it has aromatic complexity and a lasting hint of savory cedar and clove.
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.
Nearly a northern extension of Napa Valley, Alexander Valley starts just north of the small, Knights Valley, and is just a few minutes drive from the Napa town of Calistoga. It is Sonoma County’s hottest AVA. But the Russian River, which runs through the valley, creates cooler pockets and its soft, alluvial soil is ideal for grape growing, especially Cabernet Sauvignon. In fact, some believe that Alexander Valley Cabernets truly rival the best from Napa Valley and many of the heavy-hitter producers have largely invested here.
In addition to Cabernet Sauvignon, which makes up over 50% of plantings, Merlot and old vine Zinfandel thrive here. Ample, fleshy Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc dominate white wine production. Some old-vine plantings of Grenache have also been discovered and more recent experiments with Sangiovese and Barbera show great promise.