2014 Cabernet Sauvignon

“A total knock out, the 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate is even better from bottle than it was from barrel. Even so, my impression is that the 2014 still has room to grow. Powerful and explosive, the 2014 exudes pedigree in its layered personality and overall structure. Scorched earth, gravel, menthol, licorice and dark fruits give the wine its distinctive personality. Readers will have to be patient, but the 2014 is shaping up to be magnificent.” -Antonio Galloni, Vinous (Dec. 2016) 96+ points

Tasting Notes

This elegant wine opens with aromas of dark-purple violets, followed by fresh red plums and dark-roast coffee. A subtle note of sweetness mixes with savory dried herbs, scorched earth, graphite, and Seavey’s signature minerality. Soft, generous, and coating in the mouth, this wine has a presence that lifts and expands to an unexpectedly long finish. Winemaker Jim Duane’s advice: “Be patient when you taste this wine and pay attention to the finish.” This wine will get better and better over the next three decades, but it will also be very enjoyable in its earlier years.

Ratings

Robert Parker, The Wine Advocate (Oct. 2016) 95+ points
“The 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate (880 cases) spends 20 months in about 60% new French oak. It is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon and offers up an opaque dense purple color in a structured, but still essentially beautiful wine with classic mulberry, blackcurrant, licorice and truffle-like notes. Earthiness is present as well and, like most Seavey wines, there is no shortage of structure and tannin. This full-bodied classic is somewhat of an anomaly for a 2014, as it needs 3-5 years of cellaring and will keep 30 or more.”

Vineyard Notes

Seavey’s 25th vintage of single-vineyard estate Cabernet Sauvignon comes from grapes grown on steep hillside blocks which we have been farming for nearly 40 years. The 2014 growing season was marked by a very dry winter, but then heavy rain in late February and early March replenished our vines with a full moisture profile. Nonetheless, the berries’ concentrated flavors reveal the ongoing multi-year drought. Early bud break was followed by an early harvest, memorable for the powerful earthquake that shook Napa Valley in late August.

Production Notes

Seavey separately harvests, vinifies and ages each vineyard block of our grapes. Our winemaking follows classic Bordeaux methods with whole-berry fermentation. In the cool of the early morning harvest, grapes from our 2014 harvest were promptly de-stemmed and the uncrushed berries were gently transferred into fermentation tanks. In order to carefully manage the tannins and resulting wine texture, the grapes were neither crushed nor run through a pump. Following fermentation, the wine was aged in French oak barrels (60% new) for 20 months before bottling in June 2016.

100% ESTATE GROWN, PRODUCED & BOTTLED, NAPA VALLEY AVA