Cornerstone Cellars Calistoga Cabernet Sauvignon 2016
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Wilfred
Wong -
Connoisseurs'
Guide - Decanter
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
This beautifully balanced wine is showing all the attributes you might expect from Calistoga. A solid core of red and black fruit, some spice notes and a dried earthiness, distinct from the red earth you’ll find in Cabernet from this area. Chewy tannins are balanced with focused fruit wrapped in a delicate layer of baking spice and dried herb. Supple tannins on the finish suggest a hillside heritage.
Blend: 94% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3% Merlot and 3% Petit Verdot
Professional Ratings
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2016 Cornerstone Cellars Calistoga Cabernet Sauvignon is lively, bright, and active. TASTING NOTES: This wine exhibits aromas of ripe red and black fruit, with an accent of oak. Enjoy its perkiness with a panko-crusted, oven-baked rack of lamb. (Tasted: June 1, 2020, San Francisco, CA)
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Connoisseurs' Guide
A little less outgoing in fruit in comparison to its siblings yet still nicely filled and spot-on in Cabernet focus, this weighty, initially supple wine tends to somewhat more obvious tannins without veering to dissuasive toughness. It comes with a fair bit of grip, but keeps its sights set on slightly reserved, oak-enriched currantlike fruit to the end, and we feel safe in predicting that once its tannins have eased with a half-decade of age, its fruit will find a more prominent place at center stage.
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Decanter
A very generous style with baked plum and damson, sweet black liquorice and black olive. Hugely attractive: kick back and enjoy!
Other Vintages
2014- Decanter
Twenty-six years in, the next generation of Cornerstone Cellars sales and winemaking teams bring to market a diverse portfolio of Cabernet Sauvignon wines –of which each one delivers a focused flavor profile - with realistic pricing to match. Now more than ever, they are resolved to implement a long-term brand development strategy and to constantly renew their commitment to that original winemaking ideology and style.
A noble variety bestowed with both power and concentration, Cabernet Sauvignon enjoys success all over the globe, its best examples showing potential to age beautifully for decades. Cabernet Sauvignon flourishes in Bordeaux's Medoc where it is often blended with Merlot and smaller amounts of some combination of Cabernet Franc, Malbecand Petit Verdot. In the Napa Valley, ‘Cab’ is responsible for some of the world’s most prestigious, age-worthy and sought-after “cult” wines. Somm Secret—DNA profiling in 1997 revealed that Cabernet Sauvignon was born from a spontaneous crossing of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc in 17th century southwest France.
One of Napa Valley’s oldest wine growing subregions but last to gain appellation status, Calistoga occupies the northernmost section of the valley. Beginning at the foot of Mount St. Helena, its vineyards stretch over steep canyons and roll out onto the valley floor. The soils in Calistoga are volcanic, which means they are heavy in minerals, low in organic matter and allow good drainage for vine roots, creating less green growth and more concentration of flavor within the grape berries.
Summer days are very hot but most nights cool down with moist ocean breezes sneaking in over the Mayacamas Mountains or from Knights Valley to its northwest.
Cabernet Sauvignon is the area’s star variety with Zinfandel coming in a strong second, though the latter commands far less price per tonnage so continues to be outshined by Cabernet in vineyard acreage, save for some important exceptions.