2018 Mount Eden Vineyards, Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, Santa Cruz Mountains, California, USA
Critics reviews
The 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate is a prime example of the transparency provided by this vintage throughout California. The nose is a beautifully balanced mixture of mulberry, redcurrant, pumice, and charred herbs. The palate displays classic Mount Eden elegance and bristles with soft but persistent acidity. The finish is bracing, tannic, and chewy, with a tight core of dark fruits gaining intensity in the glass. This is a lovely, age-worthy expression of the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Drink 2028 - 2048
Matthew Luczy, Wine Advocate (April 2024)
About this WINE
Mount Eden Vineyards
Mount Eden Vineyards, nestled high in the Santa Cruz Mountains, is one of California’s most historic wineries. Founded in 1945, this boutique estate is renowned for producing world-class Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Cabernet Sauvignon. The vineyard’s unique terroir, characterised by rocky soils and a cool, maritime climate, allows for cultivating low-yielding vines that produce wines of exceptional depth and complexity.
The estate’s commitment to sustainable farming and traditional winemaking techniques has solidified its place among the elite wineries in California. Winemaker Jeffrey Patterson, who has been at the helm since 1981, focuses on minimal intervention in the cellar, allowing the true expression of the vineyard’s terroir to shine through in each bottle.
Santa Cruz Mountains
The Santa Cruz Mountains AVA is a Viticultural Area that is based around the Santa Cruz Mountains in California. The appellation enjoys a large diveristy of micro-climates, affected by the mountain topography, the Pacific Ocean, and the nearby San Francisco Bay.
The wine appellation encompasses 1,500 acres of vineyards, dominated by mainly Pinot noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, with more smaller blocks of Cabernet Franc, Carignane, Dolcetto, Grenache, Malbec, Malvasia, Merlot, Mondeuse, Mourvedre, Nebbiolo, Petit Verdot, Petite Sirah, Sangiovese, Sauvignon Blanc, Syrah, Viognier, Zinfandel.
Notable wineries in the appellation include: Bonny Doon Vineyard, Ridge Vineyards , Neely
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.
When is a wine ready to drink?
We provide drinking windows for all our wines. Alongside the drinking windows there is a bottle icon and a maturity stage. Bear in mind that the best time to drink a wine does also depend on your taste.
Not ready
These wines are very young. Whilst they're likely to have lots of intense flavours, their acidity or tannins may make them feel austere. Although it isn't "wrong" to drink these wines now, you are likely to miss out on a lot of complexity by not waiting for them to mature.
Ready - youthful
These wines are likely to have plenty of fruit flavours still and, for red wines, the tannins may well be quite noticeable. For those who prefer younger, fruitier wines, or if serving alongside a robust meal, these will be very enjoyable. If you choose to hold onto these wines, the fruit flavours will evolve into more savoury complexity.
Ready - at best
These wines are likely to have a beautiful balance of fruit, spice and savoury flavours. The acidity and tannins will have softened somewhat, and the wines will show plenty of complexity. For many, this is seen as the ideal time to drink and enjoy these wines. If you choose to hold onto these wines, they will become more savoury but not necessarily more complex.
Ready - mature
These wines are likely to have plenty of complexity, but the fruit flavours will have been almost completely replaced by savoury and spice notes. These wines may have a beautiful texture at this stage of maturity. There is lots to enjoy when drinking wines at this stage. Most of these wines will hold in this window for a few years, though at the very end of this drinking window, wines start to lose complexity and decline.
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Description
Save 10% on the 75cl bottle, previously priced at £97.00. Offer valid until 11:59 pm on 2nd February. BBX listings excluded.
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