2008 Del Dotto Cabernet Sauvignon St. Helena Mountain
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Tasting notes
(14% alcohol): Bright, dark ruby-red color; much more youthful than the Rutherford Estate bottling. Distinctly blacker in its aromatic profile, offering scents of briary blackberry, violet, licorice, crushed rock, menthol and spicy oak. Similarly darker and more youthful in the mouth, if in a slightly muscular style, with chewy dark fruit and dark chocolate flavors dominating. This wine, too, could use a bit more delineation and verve. Finishes with more substantial dusty tannins and a building mintiness.
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Robert Parker
Stephen Tanzer, Vinous
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The 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon St. Helena Mountain possesses sweet black cherry and black currant fruit notes intermixed with licorice, cedar and spice box. Full-bodied with ripe tannin as well as a multilayered mouthfeel, it is another brilliant Cabernet Sauvignon from this estate. It should drink well for 20+ years. The charismatic David Del Dotto produces a dizzying array of world class wines from his Roman-styled villa in Napa Valley. This estate has a beautiful site on Pritchard Hill, just below Don Bryant’s Pritchard Hill Vineyard as well as Tim Mondavi’s Continuum. Somewhat confusingly, Del Dotto makes two wines called The David, the 2008 The David Napa Valley (80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Cabernet Franc and 5% Merlot) and the 2008 The David Howell Mountain (40% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot and 30% Cabernet Franc). The Napa Valley cuvee sports a black label and the Howell Mountain has a red label. Tel. (707) 963-2134; Fax (707) 963-3531