2003 Spottswoode Cabernet Sauvignon Estate
Estimated value
Buying options
Tasting notes
I was surprised at the youthfulness and purity of the 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate (but probably shouldn’t have been, given the terroir and winemaking team). It’s another deep, rich, full-bodied, even unctuous Cabernet with a gorgeous sense of elegance. Loaded with textbook Cabernet notes of darker currants and berry fruits as well as graphite, tobacco leaf, and cedarwood, it has wonderful tannins, a layered, multi-dimensional texture, and a fabulous finish. It’s mature, yet given its mid-palate density and ripe, sweet tannins, has lots of life ahead of it.
Critic scores
Average Score
Robert Parker
The Wine Advocate
More reviews and scores
In 2003, production jumped up to 3,700 cases, with the blend identical to so many other vintages with 96% Cabernet Sauvignon and 4% Cabernet Franc. This was a year where there was some freaky heat spells, but this wine has come through nicely. Deep bluish purple with notes of blackberry and cassis and charcoal followed by a soft, velvety textured, opulent and full-bodied wine that seems to be approaching full maturity. It is interesting, this wine is far more evolved, and on a faster evolutionary track than the 2001 or 2002. Nevertheless it is a beauty, loaded, layered and impressive. It must be one of the top 2003s. Drink it over the next 20-some years.
Production more than doubled with the 2005 vintage, given the normal flowering and weather conditions. Moreover, it was a relatively cool year and an abundant one at that, with just short of 3,900 cases produced. The blend was 95% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5% Cabernet Franc. This was the last vintage during the era of Rosemary Cakebread, who left Spottswoode to pursue building her own portfolio of wine. This is a reserved, but classic Spottswoode. An inky bluish purple color, notes of vanillin, white flowers, blackcurrants and blueberries are all present in this dense, rich, full-bodied wine that seems to go from strength to strength. This was a vintage across the board that I underrated, but I have seen how the wines have seemingly put on weight, complexity and density as they have evolved in bottle. This is a beauty and certainly one of the great recent Spottswoodes. (RP) 98+
Briary black fruits, coffee bean, flowers and earth on the nose; more primary than the '02. Fat and plush, with pliant, inviting dark fruit and licorice flavor showing a bit of alcoholic warmth. (ST)
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.