Mount Eden Vineyards Santa Cruz Mountains Cabernet Sauvignon 2011

One of California's most "ageable" Cabernets comes from Mount Eden's vineyards in the Santa Cruz Mountains. This estate-bottled blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, in the main, with Merlot and a soupçon of Cabernet Franc, may be an outlier in the Pinot-dominated Santa Cruz Mountains today, but it comes with quite a pedigree: The vineyard was planted with a selection from pioneering vintner Martin Ray's late 1940s vineyard. That selection of Cabernet Sauvignon cuttings was taken from the La Questa Vineyard, which in turn was grafted in the 1890s to scions from Chateau Margaux in Bordeaux, France. "Mount Eden is one of the United States' great heritage estates," writes Robert Parker (8/2012).                     98 Points Wine & Spirits:  "Open every stop on your cabernet church organ: Pure cassis. Mountain freshness. Baking spice. The pencil lead of Graves in that less-than-overripe varietal character. This is unadulterated cabernet pleasure, three words that have never come together in my mind before. Grown at an elevation of 1,800 feet, 14 miles from the coast, this vineyard traces its heritage back to Chateau Margaux,, where Emmett Rixford selected cuttings for La Questa in the 1890s. Martin Ray propagated cuttings from those vines to plant Mount Eden in the 1940s, replanted in the 1980s with a selection from Ray’s vines. Between the cool site, the exceptional vintage and pedigree of the vines, this is a true California classic.". 

Save