2012 Carter Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer Las Piedras Vineyard
Market price
Buying options
Tasting notes
Another heavenly 2012, the 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer Las Piedras Vineyard comes from a Grand Cru site just outside of St. Helena. It has a sensational mix of red and blue fruits, flowers, violets, leather, and crushed stone. As with the GTO, it's incredibly complex and nuanced, with ultra-fine yet still present tannins, flawless balance, and a great, great finish. Drink bottles any time over the coming 15 years or so.
Critic scores
Average Score
Robert Parker
Stephen Tanzer, Vinous
More reviews and scores
Dark blue and black fruit, grilled herbs, licorice and smoke meld together in the 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon Las Piedras. Firm tannins run through the fruit in an intense, structured Cabernet that is going to need time to fully come around. There is a lot to like here, but this is a classic, tightly-wound Las Piedras Cabernet Sauvignon. There is not a lot of the vintage's early appeal, that is for sure.
The compelling 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer Las Piedras Vineyard’s stunning bouquet of blueberry pie, ripe black raspberries, cassis, wet stones and spring flowers is followed by an opulent, multidimensional, powerful, rich, concentrated wine that is one of the superstars of the vintage. This is another candidate for perfection after a few years of bottle age. Drink it over the next 15-20 years.
(the first year for this bottling, from a St. Helena vineyard not far from Dr. Crane): Bright medium ruby. Strong torrefaction notes of coffee and chocolate add interest to very primary aromas of kirsch, bitter chocolate and exotic spices. Then surprisingly open-knit on the full-bodied palate, with a suave texture and nicely enrobed tannins giving shape to the black raspberry, spice and flinty mineral flavors. These small, stressed ten-year-old vines yielded extremely ripe fruit (27.6 degrees Brix) in 2012.