2014 Spottswoode, Cabernet Sauvignon, St Helena, Napa Valley, California, USA

A favourite Napa estate of mine, one that is always a pleasure to taste, and it is exceptional in the 2014 vintage. Inky plum on colour, with savoury blackberry, pencil lead, and cigar box spice on the attack, with still firm but supple tannins. As it opens, sweeter black cherry, kirsch, earth, espresso, cocoa powder and tobacco leaf notes become clearer. Tasted with Alexandre Schmitt, the perfumer-turned-wine-consultant, and I love the extra dimensions that he brings to discussing the evolution of wine in a glass.Drink 2021 to 2040jane_anson_mw, janeanson_com (December 2021)

The last wine in the vertical, the 2014, had been bottled two weeks before I tasted it, and it is the highest production year for Spottswoode (4,922 cases), since the 5,713 cases made in 1992 and the 5,852 produced in 1991. The wine is a blend of 86% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Cabernet Franc and 4% Petit Verdot. This wine shows oodles of fruit, blackcurrants, blueberries, black raspberries, charcoal, subtle oak and a full-bodied, inky, intense mouthfeel with a boatload of tannin, but the fruit is present to balance it out. This wine needs another several years of bottle age and, while not up to the levels of 2012 and 2013, it is a highly successful effort and capable of lasting 30-35 more years.Robert M. Parker, Jr. - 31/08/2016