If Napa's and Sonoma's 1993 Cabernet Sauvignons have a problem, I have yet to unearth it. Spottswoode's 1993 Cabernet Sauvignon is another outstanding wine from a vintage that has been roughly treated by the press. The wine offers a gorgeously deep purple color, a sweet, fragrant nose with a subtle floral component and plenty of blackcurrant/cassis fruit. The oak influence is restrained. Medium to full-bodied, with well-integrated acidity and tannin, this is a well-proportioned, intense, graceful style of Cabernet Sauvignon that will benefit from 3-4 years of cellaring. I don't doubt for an instant that it will evolve for two decades.

Spottswoode's 5,000-case production of Cabernet Sauvignon is the winery's bread and butter wine. I have followed this wine since the debut release, and even vintages that seemed somewhat monolithic now appear to be evolving more gracefully. I have often made reference to the fact that while no California wine tastes like Chateau Margaux, the Spottswoode Cabernet possesses an aromatic profile, weight, and textural dimension that is vaguely reminiscent of that first-growth Bordeaux estate. This pure, fragrant wine depends on its beautifully layered fruit, ripeness, and balance to impress tasters, in contrast to those Cabernets that offer a blast of wood, glycerin, and alcohol. Recent vintages have been exceptionally successful.

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Smooth, supple, elegant and graceful, with rich, concentrated currant, anise and blackberry fruit that's beautifully defined. Plenty of acidity and firm, earthy tannins give it balance. Long, lingering aftertaste.--1993 California Cabernet retrospective. 5,150 cases made.

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ready to drink, aged wonderfully, lots of leather on the nose, garnet color, decanted from magnum