Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
-
Decanter
Decanter World Wide Wine Awards- Best in Show For the second year running, it’s an Oak Knoll Cabernet which has carried the Best In Show torch for the Napa, underlining the fact that this spot in the Valley seems to be ideal for mingling Napa’s diagnostic generosity and depth with an expressive finesse and an approachability which both appeals to our judges and chimes with the wine world’s zeitgeist. The wine is still dark black-purple, and the aromatic currant and berry fruits are blue, tender and enticing, with skilled and seamless oak integration. On the palate, the wine has weight and depth -- but what you really notice in this 2018 vintage is its purity and inner energy; the weight and depth follow on after, but don’t overwhelm from the start. The seamless integration of acidity and brisk tannin, too, is another mouthwatering hallmark -- of skilled winemaking, or the place? Who’s to say?
-
Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2018 Trefethen Cabernet Sauvignon captures the essence of this cooler AVA in the Napa Valley. TASTING NOTES: This wine combines aromas and flavors of dried herbs, earth, and black fruit. Enjoy it with a lightly spiced meat stew. (Tasted: April 21, 2021, San Francisco, CA)
-
Connoisseurs' Guide
10% Petit Verdot; 3% Merlot; 2% Malbec; 1% Cabernet Franc. Deep and very well-defined curranty fruit is the centerpiece here and is joined by both lovely accents of mildly creamy oak and the lightly loamy traits emblematic of Cabernet Sauvignons from the Napa Valley floor. Fleshy, moderately full and firmed by the pushy presence of youthful tannins, the wine toughens a touch in the latter going, though no more than is expected of a good Cabernet of its age, and, if a half-decade of patience will result in a more supple wine, this one has the right pieces in the right places to age beautifully and gain in polish and complexity for twice as long.
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.