2020 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon
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Tasting notes
Spottswoode's 2020 Cabernet Sauvignon offers up hints of barrel char and a slightly roasted character, but the fruit itself—cassis and black cherries—is cool, even minty. This vintage is medium to full-bodied, not overly ripe or textural, with an excellent balance of firmness and freshness on the long, grippy finish. Tight and in need of some cellaring, it should evolve nicely for a couple of decades.
Critic scores
Average Score
Joe Czerwinski, Wine Advocate
Jeb Dunnuck
More reviews and scores
The 2020 Cabernet Sauvignon, with 3% Petit Verdot and 0.5% Cabernet Franc in the blend, is deep garnet-purple in color. It charges out of the glass with notes of blueberry preserves, redcurrant jelly, and boysenberries followed by suggestions of cumin seed, star anise, sandalwood, and fragrant earth. The medium-bodied palate is delicately crafted, with beautiful freshness and silky tannins framing the soft-spoken black fruits and earthy layers, leading to a long and minerally finish on this very pretty wine.
Tasted out of bottle, the 2020 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate showed beautifully, and it's certainly in the top handful of wines in the vintage. Offering beautiful red, blue, and black fruits as well as notes of tobacco, violets, and chalky minerality, it has medium to full-bodied richness, ripe, high-quality tannins, and outstanding length. It doesn't show any signs of smoke taint and is a beautiful, incredibly impressive effort in the vintage that I suspect will evolve gracefully for two decades.
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.