2015 CADE Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve
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The 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve is inky, powerful, and super concentrated. Blackberry jam, crème de cassis, chocolate, white truffle, and sweet new French oak saturate the palate. Yields were a measly 0.75 tons per acre. The 2015 has arrived at its tenth birthday in style, but it is also starting to show some signs of wear. The intense heat of the year on the small crop feels quite evident in this tasting.
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Robert Parker
Jeb Dunnuck
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The 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve is dark, inky and voluptuous. Super-ripe black cherry, plum, chocolate and cloves are all amped up in this unctuous, inky Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon. There is more than enough fruit intensity to fill out the wine's ample, full-bodied frame. This powerhouse Cabernet is going to need at least a few years to come into its own.
Also bottled under screwcap, the 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve checks in as a blend of 94% Cabernet Sauvignon and 6% Petit Verdot that spent 20 months in new French oak. It offers a big, sweet nose of crème de cassis, blueberries, lavender, bay leaf and hints of earth. Deep, layered and concentrated, with sensational purity of fruit, it's a perfectly balanced 2015 that has everything you could want from this vintage. Like the Howell Mountain estate, it's tannic and in need of 4-5 years of cellaring. Cade Estate Winery was founded by Gavin Newsom, Gordon Getty and John Conover (formerly of PlumpJack) and covers 54 acres on Howell Mountain.
As for the 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve, this is young and promising with intense crème de cassis and blackberry fruit, licorice, forest floor and earth. It is a blend of 93% Cabernet Sauvignon and 7% Petit Verdot. Powerful (15.6% natural alcohol), the wine is neither hot, nor rustic. Its plush tannins and long finish suggest a future of a good 20+ years, even though it is already approachable.