Wine & Spirits - December 2021 - 48

Year's Best Cabernet
Sauvignon & Blends
Our blind panels tasted 608 US cabernets
and Bordeaux-variety blends for this
issue. Our critics rated 172 as exceptional
(90+) and 52 as Best Buys. Joshua
Greene reviews the wines of California's
North Coast and Santa Cruz Mountains;
Patrick J. Comiskey reviews wines of the
Central Coast and the rest of the US. Find
a complete list of wines tasted and all
reviews at wineandspiritsmagazine.com.
CALIFORNIA
NORTH COAST
LAKE cOUNTY
NAPA VALLEY SUb-DISTRIcTS
94 | Stags' Leap Winery
$95
2018 Coombsville Napa Valley ^ Having
made cabernet at Gruaud Larose in St-Julien
and Canoe Ridge in Washington before he
came to Stags Leap Winery in 2009, Christophe
Paubert developed an affinity with the
fruit character of grapes grown in the hills
west of Napa city, a cool pocket for cabernet.
He launched this wine with the 2012 vintage,
and focuses it on fruit from the Garvey
Vineyard. That deep red fruit is luscious
and round, darkening to bold blackcurrant
flavors, sustaining freshness in their savory
ripeness. The flavors have a powerful impact
while the wine itself feels cool and refined.
Decant it for a beautiful complement to lamb
shank. -J.G. §
93 | von Strasser
$90
2018 Diamond Mountain District Napa
Valley Sori Bricco Vineyard Cabernet
Sauvignon ^ At a high elevation on Diamond
Mountain, this vineyard still sustains some of
the original vines, planted in 1968 and '70.
Rudy von Strasser blends this wine using fruit
from those old vines, as well as from vines
replanted in 2008. His latest release combines
fresh notes of roses and plums with
dried-fruit scents of black Mission figs and
dates. The tannins are powerful, freighted
with black-mushroom umami and blackpepper
spice, malleable but restricting the
wine in its youth. Those tannins will sustain
the wine for a decade or longer in the cellar.
-J.G. (100 cases) §
92 | Silverado
$78
93 | Obsidian
$75
2019 Red Hills Lake County Half Mile Cabernet
Sauvignon ^ Alex Beloz blends his top
cellar selection for his club members, incorporating
fruit from all three climate zones
of the estate. The wine includes petit verdot
and petite sirah (8 percent each) grown at the
highest point in the vineyards, above the fog
line at 2,640 feet-a half mile above sea level.
The cabernet selections range from vines at
2,300 feet up to the high point, the blend
aged in Hungarian oak barrels (75 percent
new). This is a beautiful mountain wine from
Lake County, its fruit tart without being sour,
its red-currant astringency and fresh plumskin
tannins providing refinement to the
structure. Firm and juicy in its stance, light
and airy in its delivery, this is well worth a
place in your cellar. -J.G. (1,353 cases) §
93 | Keenan
2018 Coombsville Napa Valley GEO Cabernet
Sauvignon ^ From the gravelly hillside
of this historic estate vineyard at the base of
Mt. George, the source of the volcanic soils,
GEO is a blend of cabernet sauvignon and
merlot, with small amounts of petit verdot,
cabernet franc and malbec. The wine has the
coolness of Coombsville fruit: a full-on sourcherry
saturation that makes the tannins feel
sweet. Brisk and vibrant, it's a wine for beef
carpaccio. -J.G. (2,511 cases) §
$119
2018 Spring Mountain District Napa Valley
Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon ^ A darkly
fruited product of the Mayacamas, this wine
has lovely freshness in both its deep well of
tart cherry flavor and in its tannins. Those
mountain-forest tannins are bold, edged
in mineral abrasion, well connected to the
vinous core of the wine. Every vintage of
this wine since 2011 has earned at least 93
points, an exceptional string of great wines
from Michael Keenan's collection of high-elevation
estate vineyards and from his team.
-J.G. (700 cases) §
92 | Trefethen
$65
2018 Oak Knoll Cabernet Sauvignon ^ The
Trefethen family farms 400 acres of vines
on Oak Knoll Road, and at an additional 40
48
WINE & SPIR IT S
D E c E mb ER 2021

https://www.silveradovineyards.com/shop/item/2018-geo-cabernet http://www.wineandspiritsmagazine.com https://www.obsidianwineco.com/product/2019-Obsidian-Ridge-Half-Mile-Cabernet-Sauvignon https://wine.keenanwinery.com/index.cfm?method=storeproducts.showlist&productcategoryid=8DEE7F64-01F1-4B5A-BF43-815987DA739A https://www.trefethen.com/wine/cabernet-sauvignon/

Wine & Spirits - December 2021

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