MAYACAMAS Cabernet Sauvignon

WA: 94

The 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon remains true to the winery's historic style, offering complex notes of dried herbs and mixed berries, carried across the palate by a wine that's medium-bodied, crisp and somewhat lean by modern Napa standards. It finishes long and dusty, promising well for the future.

VM: 97

The 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon is a pretty rich, bombastic wine, especially for Mayacamas. A blast of dark fruit, incense, tobacco, licorice, spice and mocha hits the palate. I would give the 2019 at least a few years in bottle to settle down, as it is quite the powerhouse today. This is an unusually flamboyant wine with plenty of richness and a bit less in the way of subtlety. The opulence of the vintage comes through loud and clear.

WA: 92+

The grapes for Mayacamas's 2020 Cabernet Sauvignon were harvested between September 5th and 16th, well before the Glass Fire. To mitigate any possible smoke exposure from the LNU Complex Fires, the fruit was rinsed, maceration times were shortened, and the press wine was kept separate (and ultimately mostly bulked out). The results speak for themselves, as the wine offers up clean cassis, cherries and blueberries, plus hints of sage and cracked pepper. It's medium to full-bodied and firmly built, with dusty tannins on the finish.

VM: 94

The 2020 Cabernet Sauvignon is one of the wines of this very challenging harvest. Dark and imposing, the 2020 is packed with black fruit, cloves, leather, menthol, chocolate and dried herbs. This is an especially dense, potent Cabernet. There is some aggressiveness to the tannins, but that is the vintage. Overall, this is impeccably done, especially within the context of the year.

WA: 95

Cherries, cranberries and hints of mocha and earth mark the nose of the 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon. It's a polite, restrained wine, smooth and silky in texture, medium- to full-bodied, with a streamlined shape on the palate that tapers into a long, elegant finish. True to the winery's historic style, it's not a big, in-your-face Napa Cab but one that prioritizes balance, elegance and refined, fine-grained tannins, with minimal oak impact. It's 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, aged in a mix of foudres, puncheons and smaller barrels, all previously used.

VM: 97

The 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon is fabulous. It's vivid and super-classic to the core, offering up an exotic mélange of dark fruit, espresso, dried herbs, iron, forest floor and incense. The 2021 is a quintessential mountain wine from Mt. Veeder, but there's just enough polish to wrap it all together while avoiding any sense of rusticity.