2001 Cabernet Sauvignon

“Readers looking for a St.-Estephe look-alike should check out this brooding, monster Cabernet Sauvignon from Bill Seavey and winemaker Philippe Melka. Tasting nearly the same as it did eight years ago, it reveals stunning, sweet chocolaty notes interwoven with notions of burning embers, loamy soil, black currants and forest floor. The complex aromatics are followed by a full-bodied, powerful, backward wine that still needs 8-10 years of cellaring. This blend of 95% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5% Petit Verdot from the dry-farmed hillside vineyards of Bill and the late Mary Seavey is a 35-50-year wine. Only for true connoisseurs and those with patience!” -Robert Parker, The Wine Advocate (May 2011) 94+ points

Tasting Notes

This wine offers plentiful dark fruit and cassis-like sweetness underlaid with fresh earth and mineral tones. The tannins are soft and lush tannins, leading to a very long finish. An exemplary wine for Seavey that is aging beautifully.

Ratings

Stephen Tanzer, Vinous (April 2017) 94 points
“Very ripe, almost liqueur-like aromas of raspberry and spices are also youthful and full of life. Plush and sweet in the middle palate but with very good inner-mouth tension and energy to the fine-grained flavors of raspberry, mocha and menthol. Really opens out and builds on the broad back end, where the tannins are nicely balanced by the wine’s material. Long on personality, but with lovely restraint and framing acidity suggesting that this wine is still evolving in a positive way. Very impressive.” Drinking Window: 2018-2032

Robert Parker, The Wine Advocate (May 2011) 94+ points
“Readers looking for a St.-Estephe look-alike should check out this brooding, monster Cabernet Sauvignon from Bill Seavey and winemaker Philippe Melka. Tasting nearly the same as it did eight years ago, it reveals stunning, sweet chocolaty notes interwoven with notions of burning embers, loamy soil, black currants and forest floor. The complex aromatics are followed by a full-bodied, powerful, backward wine that still needs 8-10 years of cellaring. This blend of 95% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5% Petit Verdot from the dry-farmed hillside vineyards of Bill and the late Mary Seavey is a 35-50-year wine. Only for true connoisseurs and those with patience!”

Robert Parker, The Wine Advocate (Dec. 2003) 93 points
“A potential super-star in the making is the 2001 Cabernet Sauvignon. It gets my vote as the finest wine made at this estate since the 1997, and it should have the longevity of their monumental 1991. Sadly, only 1,500 cases were produced from a blend of 95% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5% Petit Verdot. It should be called a vin de garde (a wine for aging) as it is a tightly-knit, powerful, enormously-endowed offering with huge tannin, monster extract, and rich, intense black currant, tar, blackberries, loamy soil, and licorice flavors. Closed, broodingly rich, and large-scaled, this 2001 possesses nearly unlimited upside potential, but patience will be a virtue.”

Vineyard Notes

Seavey’s 12th estate-produced Cabernet, the 2001, was made from grapes that came from vines planted in several different locations of the south-facing hillside vineyard. This year’s growing season was a bit of a roller coaster with an early spring, a surprise frost and early heat spikes. But the weather evened out and August cooled to near perfect temperatures with cool nights. The grapes were harvested during the first three weeks of October.

Production Notes

Winemaking style followed classic Bordeaux methods. Harvested at 25 degrees Brix, the juice remained in contact with the skins for almost 28 days. Following malolactic fermentation, the wine was aged in French oak barrels (48% new oak). The 2001 Cabernet was bottled on June 19-20, 2003.

100% ESTATE GROWN, PRODUCED & BOTTLED, NAPA VALLEY AVA