2014 Spottswoode, Cabernet Sauvignon, St Helena, Napa Valley, California,USA

Product: 20148115551

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Prices start from £689.00 per case Buying options

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Available by the case In Bond. Pricing excludes duty and VAT, which must be paid separately before delivery. Storage charges apply.

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6 x 75cl bottle

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Description

A favourite Napa estate of mine, one that is always a pleasure to taste, and it is exceptional in the 2014 vintage. Inky plum on colour, with savoury blackberry, pencil lead, and cigar box spice on the attack, with still firm but supple tannins. As it opens, sweeter black cherry, kirsch, earth, espresso, cocoa powder and tobacco leaf notes become clearer. Tasted with Alexandre Schmitt, the perfumer-turned-wine-consultant, and I love the extra dimensions that he brings to discussing the evolution of wine in a glass.

Drink 2021 to 2040

Jane Anson, Inside Bordeaux (December 2021)

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Critics reviews

Jane Anson97/100

Wine Advocate95+/100

The last wine in the vertical, the 2014, had been bottled two weeks before I tasted it, and it is the highest production year for Spottswoode (4,922 cases), since the 5,713 cases made in 1992 and the 5,852 produced in 1991. The wine is a blend of 86% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Cabernet Franc and 4% Petit Verdot. This wine shows oodles of fruit, blackcurrants, blueberries, black raspberries, charcoal, subtle oak and a full-bodied, inky, intense mouthfeel with a boatload of tannin, but the fruit is present to balance it out. This wine needs another several years of bottle age and, while not up to the levels of 2012 and 2013, it is a highly successful effort and capable of lasting 30-35 more years.
Robert M. Parker, Jr. - 31/08/2016 Read more

About this WINE

Spottswoode Estate

Spottswoode is a historic, family-owned Napa vineyard and winery renowned for its exceptional Cabernet Sauvignon. Established in 1882 by George Schonewald, the estate is distinguished by the pre-Prohibition Victorian building depicted on the wine label. Spottswoode was named by Mrs. Albert Spotts in 1910, and it was acquired by Mary and Jack Novak in 1972. Mary released Spottswoode’s first Cabernet Sauvignon in 1982, exactly one hundred years after the estate was founded.

Situated on the western edge of St. Helena at the foot of the Mayacamas Mountains, the Spottswoode terroir is ideal for growing fine wine grape varieties. The forty acres are given primarily to Cabernet Sauvignon, with small blocks of Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, and Sauvignon Blanc. The estate has been farmed organically since 1985, and the vineyard was certified organic in 1992.

Today, Mary’s daughters are at the helm: Beth Novak Milliken manages the winery, and Lindy Novak oversees national marketing.

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Cabernet Sauvignon

The most famous red wine grape in the world and one of the most widely planted.

It is adaptable to a wide range of soils, although it performs particularly well on well-drained, low-fertile soils. It has small, dusty, black-blue berries with thick skins that produce deeply coloured, full-bodied wines with notable tannins. Its spiritual home is the Médoc and Graves regions of Bordeaux where it thrives on the well-drained gravel-rich soils producing tannic wines with piercing blackcurrant fruits that develop complex cedarwood and cigar box nuances when fully mature.

The grape is widely planted in California where Cabernet Sauvignon based wines are distinguished by their rich mixture of cassis, mint, eucalyptus and vanilla oak. It is planted across Australia and with particular success in Coonawarra where it is suited to the famed Terra Rossa soil. In Italy barrique aged Cabernet Sauvignon is a key component in Super Tuscans such as Tignanello and Sassicaia, either on its own or as part of a blend with Sangiovese.