Winemaker Notes
The expressive Ceanda St. Helena Cabernet Sauvignon’s bouquet opens elegantly with perfumed wild blackberries, violets and a dusting of cardamom and anise. The entry is full and offers pencil lead, cassis and black currants. Impeccably integrated oak allows the fruit to shine on the palate while lending sinuous structure and weight. Chewy tannins and velvety texture lead way to a supple, juicy finish.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
A blend of 87% Cabernet Sauvignon, 11% Cabernet Franc, and the rest Petit Verdot, the 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon Ceanda comes from a selection of three different vineyards and spent 20 months in French oak. It has a spicy, cedary, complex style as well as classic Cabernet cassis, lead pencil, and tobacco nuances. Medium to full-bodied, nicely balanced, with sweet fruit and some chewy tannins, it’s a pleasure bent Cabernet to enjoy over the coming 10-12 years.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
A blend of 87% Cabernet, 11% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot, the 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon Ceanda gives up baked plums, warm cassis, fried herbs and tobacco with truffles, tapenade and chargrill notions. The palate is medium to full-bodied, firm and chewy with muscular fruit and earthy layers.
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.
St. Helena is in the heart of the Napa Valley, nestled between Calistoga to the north and Rutherford on its southern border. On its western side, the Mayacamas Mountains guard it from the cooling effects of the Pacific Ocean; to its east stand the Vaca Mountains. In conjunction, these mountain ranges serve to lock in summer daytime heat. But in the evening, cool air from the San Pablo Bay funnels up through the valley, creating very chilly nights. It isn’t uncommon for temperatures to drop 50 degrees, a shift that promotes a balance of sugar ripeness and acidity in wine grapes.
St. Helena contains a plethora of different soil types in a small area, which have been enhanced over centuries by rain runoff from both mountain ranges. Its vineyards cover a variety of terrain, spreading across the bucolic valley floor and its benchlands.
These ideal topographic and climatic growing conditions easily caught the attention of early winemaking pioneers. In fact, St. Helena is the birthplace of Napa Valley’s commercial wine industry. Dr. Crane founded his cellar in 1859, David Fulton in 1860 and Charles Krug in 1861.
Today there are no less than 400 separate vineyards planted within the 12,000 acres that make up the St. Helena appellation.
Revered most for its red wines based on Bordeaux varieties, namely Cabernet Sauvignon, the St. Helena appellation is also a source of superior Syrah, Zinfandel and Sauvignon blanc.