Winemaker Notes
Invitingly warm, resinous and flirting with extremes, the decadent 2015 Staglin Cabernet is a brûléed, dark fruited marvel that thrills with its texture and layers. A mousse-like quality brings a breath of air and light to the dense, concentrated mouthfeel and softens the abundant underlying tannins that provide a pleasant grip to a powdery, fine-grained mineral driven exit that feels like the perfect hug from a distant relative.
Blend: 88% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Cabernet Franc, 4% Petit Verdot
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Still showing brilliantly (and I don't expect that to change), the 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate has the ripe, expansive, sexy style of the vintage front and center. Loads of crème de cassis, blueberries, crushed violets, and spice all soar from this beauty, which is powerful and rich, yet perfectly balanced. At the same quality level as the 2013, it's nevertheless in a much more approachable, flamboyant style. Drink it any time over the coming two decades or more. It's a gorgeous, gorgeous wine.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Deep garnet-purple colored, the 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon has a decadent nose of warm blackcurrants, blackberry preserves and ripe black plums plus suggestions of chocolate box, baking spices, fertile loam and dried Mediterranean herbs. The medium to full-bodied palate is packed with expressive black fruits and savory nuances. With a solid structure of chewy tannins and balanced freshness, it finishes long and earthy. This was tasted as a barrel sample.
Range: 94-96 -
Vinous
The 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate is one of the most delicate wines of the year. Sweet dried cherry, mint, cedar, tobacco and dried herbs all take shape in the glass. The 2015 has aged gracefully. Dark fruit, lavender, mocha, grilled herbs and sweet pipe tobacco lend notable aromatic presence as this opens with air. Poor set and selection in the field lowered yields dramatically. Production is just 1,500 cases, among the lowest ever here.
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Decanter
In 2007 Fredrik Johansson, with extensive experience in Australia as well as California, became the winemaker at Staglin. Like his predecessors, he has maintained a balance between the powerful Rutherford fruit character and polished winemaking. The nose is blackberry-scented, with minty, brambly nuances. It's rounded and full-bodied, with weighty, powerful dark fruits and a fleshy but fine-grained finish that's elegant and long.
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James Suckling
This shows plenty of dark plums and spiced dark chocolate. Hints of orange skin and cloves, too. So deep and intense on the palate. Full body, round and velvety tannins and a powerful and bright finish. Drink or hold.
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Wine Spectator
Pure, rich, deep and balanced, well-centered on plush blackberry, wild berry, currant, black licorice, light oak and dusty earth flavors. Lets the fruit shine through, with oak in the background. Best from 2020 through 2024.
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.
The Rutherford sub-region of Napa Valley centers on the town of Rutherford and covers some of Napa Valley’s finest vineyard real estate, spanning from the Mayacamas in the west, to the Vaca Mountains on the other side of the valley.
Inside of the Rutherford AVA, bordering the Mayacamas, is a stretch of uplands called the Rutherford Bench. (These bench lands technically run the length of Oakville as well). Mountain runoff creates deep, well-drained, alluvial soils on the bench, giving vine roots plenty of reason to permeate deep into the ground. The result is wine with great structure and complexity.
Rutherford Cabernet Sauvingons and Bordeaux Blends garner substantial attention for their enticing fragrances of dusty earth and dried herbs, broad and juicy mid-palates and lush and fine-grained tannins. The sub-appellation claims some of the valley’s most prized vineyards today, namely Caymus, Rubicon and Beckstoffer Georges III.
It is also home to Napa’s most influential and historic personalities. Thomas Rutherford, responsible for the appellation's name, made serious investments here in grape growing and wine production between the years of 1850 to 1880. Gustave Niebaum purchased a large swath of land and completed his winery in 1887, calling it “Inglenook.” Today this remains the oldest bonded winery in California. Georges Latour founded Beaulieu Vineyard in 1900, making it the oldest continuous winery in the state. Latour also hired the famous enologist, André Tchelistcheff, a man credited for single-handedly defining the modern Napa winemaking style.