1989 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
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Tasting notes
Kindly opened by Beth Novak to celebrate my anniversaries. Made by Tony Soter in a cool vintage. Still with some fresh fruit merging into a certain leatheriness. Sweet fruit is just starting to fade. (JR)
Critic scores
Robert Parker
Jancis Robinson MW
More reviews and scores
In 1989, rain occurred before and during the harvest, causing panic in Northern California, where rain is rarely an issue after March and before mid-November. This was a surprisingly delicious, up-front, in-your-face style of wine, with loads of ripe black and red currant fruit, spring flowers, soft tannins, a medium to full body, not much complexity, but it is a delicious, sensual, fruit-driven wine that seems fully mature and capable of holding on for another 5-6 years. It doesn’t have the density or structure of the great years, but it is a surprisingly successful wine in this vintage.
Wonderfully glowing crimson. Almost marine sort of mineral note – real zestiness! Lightness of touch. Particularly vivacious on the nose. Very subtle and layered with lovely fullness without being at all sweet or alcoholic. Still quite dusty tannins on the finish. Just a little more subtle than the 1988. Big crop and it rained so no-one expected this to be this good. But Tony Soter decided to wait and let the rain go through and wait – so this was picked later than most. (LM)
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.