1987 Spottswoode Cabernet Sauvignon Estate
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Tasting notes
The 1987 is a beautiful wine that is pretty and holding onto its fruit nicely, with a dark, nearly opaque garnet color. This wine, with a production of just under 2,800 cases, was a blend of 96% Cabernet Sauvignon and 4% Cabernet Franc. Tony Soter was still the winemaker, and during the period 1983-1990 the wines were made at Robert Pepi. This wine shows the texture and lushness for which the vintage is known. A deep color offers up notes of charcoal dust, earth, blackcurrants, cedar, a touch of rose petal and licorice. It is round, generous and probably the most fruit-driven of the older vintages in this vertical. It also seems to have reached full maturity, where it certainly can hold, when well-kept, for up to a decade.
Critic scores
Average Score
Robert Parker
Jancis Robinson MW
More reviews and scores
Full, deep red. More energetic on the nose than the '85, offering scents of currant, plum, herbs, camphor, cassis, cedar and tobacco. Conveys seductive subtle sweetness to its cassis, tea leaf, menthol and licorice flavors. Not fat but nicely pliant and suave, with subtle depth--and not at all edgy like the '82/'83 pair. A succulent wine with firm tannins and noteworthy energy. (ST)
Dark crimson without too much development. Particularly mineral without that much development. Intense and complete – some sweetness, even a little cassis which you don’t find all that often nowadays! Slightly raw and brutal. I’d like to see this mellow a bit. Though very clean and brisk on the finish. (LM)
Bright ruby-red. Perfumed, high-pitched aromas of raspberry, cranberry, violet and oak. Silky on entry, then intensely flavored, with good minerally lift and rather strong but nicely integrated acidity. A penetrating wine with modest flesh, but still fresh and aromatic. Finishes with firm tannins and good grip.
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.