1974 Heitz Cabernet Sauvignon Martha's Vineyard
Market price
Buying options
Tasting notes
Realm Cellars historic Napa Valley tasting. The label of this famous wine from a very good growing season says 13% but the wine tastes more like 14%. There was extended hang time. Joe Heitz was no fan of malolactic conversion, even for reds! Joe had a problem with his leg in 1974 so the wine was made by his son David, just out of UC Davis, but Joe told him exactly what to do. The fruit supply from the May family’s Martha’s vineyard, on an alluvial fan on the benchlands of Oakville like Harlan and VHR, was guaranteed to Heitz on a simple handshake. Now much of it is under contract to the sprawling Lawrence Group and 2025 is the first vintage when some of the fruit is sold elsewhere, too. I remember Joe Heitz as a bit of a curmudgeon. Marked bottle deposit. Glowing shaded ruby. Re ally rich, ripe and fine. So lovely! Haunting nose. Real texture and fascinating fruit with such complexity. Hint of eucalypt. Just gorgeous. Long. A great wine.
Critic scores
Average Score
Robert Parker, Wine Advocate
Jancis Robinson MW
More reviews and scores
Tobacco, blackberry, cassis, mint leaf, cigar box, spice, spearmint, and earthy notes open to a fully mature, soft, supple, round wine with elegant tannins. There is a lot of intensity, richness, and balance in this sublime example of a fully mature California Cabernet Sauvignon that will not get better with further aging.
The 1974 Heitz Cellar Cabernet Sauvignon Martha’s Vineyard has long been a Napa Valley icon. For those who have not tasted it, this bottle shows why. Still vibrant and poised, the 1974 offers up red cherry fruit, dried herbs, sage, licorice and blood orange, all driven by bright acids that suggest ageability from this point on will be determined by storage and corks, as the wine itself is pretty near immortal.
The iconic 1974 Cabernet Sauvignon Martha’s Vineyard showed well, with a fully mature, beautifully balanced, elegant style that carried incredible complexity in its minty darker fruits, eucalyptus, spice, and cedary aromas and flavors. There’s a kiss of volatile acidity that gives the wine plenty of lift, it’s medium to full-bodied, and is a classy, resolved, elegant wine that should be drunk up.