California Collector Wines

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The 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate has shut down slightly since I tasted it last year, yet it’s still a magical, perfect wine. A blend of 85% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Cabernet Franc, and the balance Petit Verdot, it offers incredible notes of pure crème de cassis, blueberries, camphor, crushed rocks, and lead pencil shavings. This rich, full-bodied beauty always reminds me of a great vintage of Château Margaux with its beautiful complexity, power, and elegance. As I wrote last year, do your best to give bottles 4-5 years of bottle age and it should evolve for three decades or more.Jeb Dunnuck | 100 JDDeep garnet-purple in color, the 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon is still very tight and youthful, slowly unfurling to reveal a multifaceted wine with tons of black, blue and red fruit sparks—plums, cherries, black currants and red currants—with dark chocolate, cedar chest, black tea and red roses in the background plus wafts of pencil lead and prosciutto. Medium-bodied and firmly textured by superbly ripe, grainy tannins, it has a fantastic core of intense, complex layers, finishing on an edifying mineral note. Wow!Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 100 RPSpottswoode, nudged about against Spring Mountain is situated on an ancient alluvial fan. The tiny vineyard has been owned and run by the Novak family since 1972. President Beth Novak and winemaker Aron Weinkauf are known for crafting Cabernets that paradoxically possess gentility and vivid concentration at the same time. The reverberating flavours always remind me of the sound of a church bell that someone has just struck hard. Wonderful exotic, spicy mulberry and cranberry notes. Fine tannin. Drinking Window 2019 - 2045Decanter | 97 DECSpottswoode's 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon is absolutely gorgeous. Medium in body, translucent and super-expressive, the 2016 is sublime, not to mention on the understated side of things for the year. Dark red cherry, red plum, mocha and espresso add lovely shades of nuance. The 2016 is racy, but also clearly holding back much of its ultimate potential. I imagine the 2016 will always be a wine of finesse, first and foremost.Vinous Media | 96+ VMBlended with small percents of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot, this vintage marks the winery's 35th year of making this wine, the grapes all estate-grown and organically farmed. Rich and grippy, it expands to reveal expressive notes of dried herb, leather and salty stone, at first demure in black fruit, with an elegant structure and undoubtable time to age. Enjoy best from 2026–2031.Wine Enthusiast | 96 WEBeautifully rendered, with a focused beam of gently mulled red and black currant fruit that glides through atop a subtle but persistent loamy structure. Light tea and alder notes fill in throughout, ending with a wave of fruit that is alluringly lined with latent mineral tension. Best from 2021 through 2040. 4,030 cases made.Wine Spectator | 96 WSThis blend of 85 per cent cabernet sauvignon, nine per cent cabernet franc and six per cent petit verdot has strikingly pure blackcurrant aromas and flavors. The palate has flavorful and fleshy, ripe mixed berries, cast in plush, seamlessly even tannins. Drink or hold.James Suckling | 95 JS

With more minerality as well as a bloody, iron character, the perfect 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Lotus Vineyard is 97% Cabernet Sauvignon and 3% Petit Verdot that saw 27 months in new French oak barrels. Incredible notes of blackcurrants, graphite, tobacco, Asian spices, and dried herbs all emerge from this full-bodied, ultra-pure, layered, and just incredible wine that tops out my scale. Coming from a vineyard at the base of Howell Mountain and aged in 90% new French oak, it has the class to offer pleasure even today yet is going to benefit from 7-8 years of bottle age and keep for 3-4 decades. It’s one of the greatest young Cabernets I’ve ever tasted.Jeb Dunnuck | 100 JDThe 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Lotus Vineyard is the most powerful and backward of the three single-vineyard Cabernets at Dana. Brisk and finely cut, the 2016 captures a stunning interplay of freshness, structure and vibrancy. Readers will have to be patient, as the 2016 is going to need a number of years to be at its very best. Even in the early going, though, it is pretty memorable. Gravel, sage, menthol, crushed flowers and white pepper add aromatic nuance to a brooding, tannic Cabernet Sauvignon built for the cellar.Vinous Media | 100 VMThe 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Lotus Vineyard is made up of 97% Cabernet Sauvignon (clones 4 and 15) and 3% Petit Verdot. It fermented 46% in oak tanks, 38% in concrete and 16% in barrels. It was on the skins for 28 to 43 days and aged in French oak barrels for 27 months. Deep garnet-purple in color, it is a little shy to begin, before opening up with provocative lilacs, cinnamon stick, cloves and underbrush over a core of blackcurrant cordial, preserved plums and Black Forest cake plus a waft of cast-iron pan. Full-bodied, the palate is an exercise in grace, with wonderfully harmonious perfumed black fruit framed by very fine-grained tannins and bags of freshness, finishing very long.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 99 RPThis is a very solid red showing an impressive, vertical line of tannins and acidity with blackberry and blueberry character. Full body, a cylinder of fruit and chewy yet polished tannins. Extremely persistent. Needs three or four years to come together. Try after 2022.James Suckling | 98 JS

The 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Gravelly Meadow is made up of 88% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Merlot, 2% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot. Very deep purple-black colored, it sashays out of the glass with beautifully provocative black cherries, blueberry compote and warm cassis scents followed by candied violets, molten chocolate, licorice and fallen leaves plus hints of black olives and lavender. Medium to full-bodied, the palate reveals explosive energy wrapped in a silken carpet of exquisitely fine-grained tannins, finishing with amazing freshness and perfume. Gorgeous.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 100 RPGraphite, smoke, grilled herbs, lavender, licorice, black cherry and plum are some of the many notes that run through the 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Gravelly Meadow. Savory and virile in feel, the 2016 boasts tremendous nuance and tons of pure character. Here, too, the new oak is a bit prominent in the early going. The oak needs time to settle down, but that should not be a problem in the long run, as the wine seems to have the underlying depth to handle it.Vinous Media | 96 VMBlack-licorice and blackberry aromas with hints of iron and hot stone. Full-bodied, dense and layered with a soft, succulent feel. Juicy and delicious aftertaste. Drink or hold. Better after 2021.James Suckling | 96 JSBroad and deep, with dark plum and blackberry preserve flavors rolling along, lined with ganache and roasted alder notes. Savory, bay leaf and tobacco hints flitter in the background, adding energy, texture and detail. Will need some time. Best from 2022 through 2040. 623 cases made.Wine Spectator | 95 WSAn old-school European style with a great nose of toffee, mocha with blackcurrants and dried herbs. Grippy structure and fresh acidity; this is a youthful wine that will age gracefully. Grown in the soils of a prehistoric river bed, these gravels drain well and the vine’s roots to penetrate deeply.Decanter | 95 DECFrom a five-acre section of the vineyard, this classic red is blended with 8% Merlot and 2% Cabernet Franc. Crushed rock, red fruit and warm baking spices combine around a grippy midpalate of leather, clove and tobacco—the power gracefully persistent. The finish is brambly and bright. Allow this youthful wine to age; enjoy best from 2026–2031. Wine Enthusiast | 94 WENew oak gives this wine an initial blush of sweetness, but as the flavors open up, the impression is completely savory. This grows in a gravel wash on the south bank of Diamond Creek, a cool site tucked into a manzanita grove. In 2016, the vines were closing in on 50 years, and the wine they offered evokes roses, soil and manzanita bark more than any direct fruit. There’s a black olive tone to preface what fruit will emerge with bottle age; as for now, the wine feels youthful and restrained.Wine & Spirits Magazine | 92 W&S