2014 Cabernet Sauvignon Aida Estate
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Tasting notes
A plush, beautifully resonant wine, the Cabernet Sauvignon Aida Estate is loaded with chocolate, mocha, plum, spice and menthol flavors. Sumptuous and ample, the 2014 offers considerable immediacy in a powerful, overt style.
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Robert Parker
Antonio Galloni, Vinous
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The 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon Aida Estate, from a site that sits on the valley floor at a slightly lower elevation than the Vineyard 29 Estate, is a blend of 94% Cabernet Sauvignon and the rest Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc. It spent 20 months in 75% new French oak and there are 740 cases of this stunning wine. Chuck McMinn and his wine consultant Philippe Melka have really zeroed in on what a great performer this vineyard can be, for not only Zinfandel, but Cabernet Sauvignon. Opaque purple in color with notes of beef blood, blackcurrants, blackberry, licorice, spice box and charcoal, this is a great Napa Cabernet Sauvignon that is full-bodied, powerful and masculine in style, but silky, because of the vintage’s soft tannins. Drink it over the next 20 or more years.
The 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon Aida Estate expresses all of the intensity that is typical of this site, but with a little more precision than the 2013. Dark red and blue stone fruits, mocha, lavender and spices power through to the finish.
The 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon Aida Estate is a heady, exotic wine. Blackberry jam, white truffle, chocolate and copious new French oak infuse the Aida with intense concentration. There is nothing subtle about the 2014, and yet it has aged impeccably. This is a blast from the past, as the wines here are not made in this flamboyant style anymore. This, too, has turned out better than I originally envisaged.