Winemaker Notes
Blend: 78% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6% Merlot, 6% Petit Verdot, 10% Malbec
Professional Ratings
-
Wine Enthusiast
This portion of the winery's vineyard always yields Cabernets of enormous concentration with hard tannins. The 2009 is a classic, detonating in the mouth with laserlike blackberry and cassis flavors, to which new oak brings additional richness of smoky cedar. It’s really a beautiful wine, but very tannic, even by Von Strasser standards.
-
Wine & Spirits
Von Strasser contracts six acres of the 15 at this vineyard dating to 1968, one of the early plantings on Diamond Mountain. It has the cool, zesty richness the region's best sites can give, brisk and breezy, grounded by savory tannins as mellow as melted chocolate. Decant it for something as rich as braised beef cheeks.
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.