Winemaker Notes
Blend: 88% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% Malbec, and 3% Petit Verdot, and 2% Cabernet Franc.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
This is a headturning wine, especially at the price—an impressive study in cohesive elements of black currant, lavender and licorice melded with meaty, lengthy tannin. The black currant gives way to more sumptuous flavors of blueberry and cocoa powder, offering balanced body weight and complexity.
Editors' Choice -
Jeb Dunnuck
The most expensive of the three releases I was able to taste, the 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Black Label is bigger, richer wine and reveals an inky purple color, fresh yet perfumed notes of blueberries, violets, crushed rock, and graphite, full body, and a focused, tight, streamlined texture that's going to benefit from 3-4 years of bottle age. It has thrilling purity of fruit and is a long, elegant, seriously impressive bottle.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Deep garnet-purple colored, the 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Black Label opens with a beautiful perfume of red roses, black tea, menthol and fragrant earth scents over a core of cassis, warm plums and kirsch plus wafts of cedar and truffles. The palate is medium to full-bodied with exquisitely ripe, fine-grained tannins and oodles of freshness lifting the bright, vivacious fruit layers to a long, perfumed finish.
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James Suckling
Very attractive blueberry and black-truffle aromas here, leading to a palate with a exceptionally plush and fleshy array of ripe dark plums and blackberries, as well as a strong surge of toasty oak spice. Nicely integrated. Drink or hold.
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.