2010 Plumpjack Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve McWilliam's Vineyard
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The 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve, which comes from the same McWilliams Oakville vineyard that made Villa Mt. Eden famous, ratchets up everything. A nearly perfect, compelling Cabernet Sauvignon, it boasts an inky blue/purple color as well as a gorgeous perfume of spring flowers, blueberry liqueur and creme de cassis, a skyscraper-like texture without heaviness, full body and beautiful purity as well as depth. This stunning Cabernet Sauvignon is a compelling example of Plumpjack. This enviable estate on the Oakville Corridor, sandwiched between Rudd Estate and Screaming Eagle, and overlooked by Dalla Valle and a handful of other blue bloods is the former Villa Mt. Eden estate made famous by Nils Venge in the 1970s. The great wines of Villa Mt. Eden are well represented by what Plumpjack has accomplished since they took over this estate. There are two cuvees, the basic Cabernet Sauvignon and a Reserve offering. Tel. (707) 945-1220
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Average Score
Robert Parker
Stephen Tanzer, Vinous
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The highlight among these new releases, the 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve is stunningly beautiful. A warm, resonant bouquet melds into layers of dark fruit in this deep, intensely spiced Cabernet Sauvignon. Fleshy and gorgeous, the 2010 stands out for its gorgeous depth, density and inner sweetness. Hints of chocolate, plums, new leather and licorice are layered into the finish. Overall, this is a fairly delicate, sensual wine for the year. Today, the 2010 Reserve is a bit tight relative to how it showed last year, likely because of its recent bottling. My impression is that the Reserve will bounce back in another year or two. In 2010 the blend is 97% Cabernet Sauvignon and 3% Petit Verdot that spent 24 months on 100% new French oak barrels.
Saturated deep ruby. Wild, highly nuanced aromas and flavors of blackberry, cassis, chocolate, espresso, licorice, game and tobacco. Dense and fine-grained, showing greater concentration than the regular Plumpjack cabernet but coming across as more monolithic today. This very rich but youthfully tight wine will need at least several years in the bottle to lose some of its baby fat and show more detail. But it has all the elements for a glorious evolution in bottle. Assistant winemaker Jeff Owens told me that the fermentations are now hotter and faster for the Cade wines than previously (Cade and Plumpjack are under the same ownership), with less post-fermentation maceration, while at Plumpjack the fermentations are now a bit cooler than previously. Although time on the skins is normally two to three weeks, he added, some lots get up to 60 days. Both of these 2010s will be bottled in the fall.
The 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve is an extraordinary wine bursting with class and pedigree. Black fruit, tar, licorice and savory herbs are some of the notes that emerge from this exotic, full-bodied wine. Notes of white flowers add complexity and nuance as the flavors build towards the huge, intense finish. This is another head-spinning wine from winemaker Tony Biagi and his team.