1997 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
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Tasting notes
Deep, bright ruby. Very ripe but reduced nose shows a chocolatey ripeness to the primary flavors of cassis, blueberry and licorice. Densely packed and powerful, conveying a tactile texture to the sweet flavors of black fruits, tobacco and spice cake. Firm acidity gives clarity and definition to the middle palate of this very concentrated wine. Finishes savory, deeply spicy and firmly tannic, with terrific length and grip. Considerably fresher and better balanced than a bottle I tasted for my Spottswoode vertical last year.
Critic scores
Robert Parker
Jancis Robinson MW
More reviews and scores
A blend of 95% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5% Cabernet Franc, the 1997 is just short of perfection from this great vintage in Napa Valley. A spectacular wine, it was the first made by Rosemary Cakebread. Production was quite high, as the new plantings started to fully produce, with 4,800+ cases declared. This is wine that fills the olfactory senses with gorgeous ripeness, blueberries, black raspberries, blackberries and cassis, while spring flowers and a touch of oak still lingers in the aromatics. When the wine hits the palate, the extraordinary intensity, purity and multi-dimensional complexity all seem to converge with a cascade of fruit, glycerin and richness. Like most Spottswoode Cabernet Sauvignons, it is only 13.8% alcohol. This is a magnificent wine, a young adolescent in the scheme of its potentially fascinating evolution and should have a good 25-30+ years left in it – although it’s strutting its stuff at present. Certainly in the first two decades of Spottswoode wines this is clearly one of the most compelling efforts.
Good bright red with ruby tones. Aromas of cherry, truffle, minerals, leather and camphor as joined by smoky wood notes of mesquite and hickory. This mellowed nicely with aeration, becoming increasingly claret-like and showing flavors of dried fruits and tobacco, with the exotic woodsmoke note receding. This smooth, substantial wine displays surprising energy for a hot year but turned a bit leaner and greener with time in the glass, showing a firm edge of acidity.
Rather tired old nose. Savoury and a bit lean and old. Varnishy. Was this a bad bottle? (LM)
About the producer
Spottswoode is one of those rare Napa estates whose reputation rests less on volume or spectacle than on persistent exactitude. Set on the western edge of St Helena, where the Mayacamas rise and afternoon breezes temper the valley’s warmth, the vineyard occupies a favoured pocket of the appellation.