Winemaker Notes
Composition: 84% Cabernet Sauvignon, 16% Merlot
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Made with 16% Merlot to soften it, this is an unctuous, fully satisfying wine, restrained and complex, grown on the family’s Chiles Valley estate. It opens with ripe red berry and currant as well as a suggestion of vanilla, the oak providing structure and texture. Enjoy through 2025.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
A beautiful bouquet of blueberry and black currant fruit intermixed with floral undertones jumps from the glass of the 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon. Medium to full-bodied, elegant, pure and nicely textured, this strong effort possesses lots of character and richness. The finish is reassuringly long. Enjoy it over the next 10+ years.
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.
Nestled in the Vaca Mountains on the northeast side of Napa Valley, Chiles Valley is one of the cooler Napa subregions with vineyards at about 600 to 1,200 feet in elevation. The region is known for its Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel, Chardonnay, and Sauvignon blanc.