Mount Peak Sentinel Cabernet Sauvignon 2016
-
Suckling
James
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
The Sentinel Cabernet Sauvignon is named for the shield-shaped block that casts a watchful eye on the entrance to Monte Rosso Vineyard. Dense dark fruit notes abound in this robust Cabernet Sauvignon, with ripe blackberry, cassis and wild blueberries leading the charge. Pronounced earth tones follow suit, along with a Mayan chocolate spiciness on the firm, lasting finish.
Professional Ratings
-
James Suckling
Fresh blackcurrants, dark plums, mulberries and cassis. Medium-bodied with crunchy fruit and acidity, grainy tannins and a medium-long finish. Drink in 2022.
Other Vintages
2018-
Suckling
James
-
Enthusiast
Wine
-
Wong
Wilfred -
Parker
Robert
The Mount Peak Winery story begins more than a century ago at the celebrated Monte Rosso Vineyard, and culminates with the revival of Mount Peak Winery, a vestige of one of California’s ghost wineries. Their wines are inspired by this great place, and they pay tribute to the extraordinary winery that once stood there by capturing its enduring spirit in their wine.
Built in 1886, Mount Peak was a marvel of innovation. The three-story, gravity-flow winery was built from the rocks pulled from the dry-farmed Monte Rosso Vineyard. Though it quickly emerged as one of California’s top ten producers, the start of Prohibition in 1920 forced the winery to shutter its doors. Like many of California’s pioneering wineries, Mount Peak was abandoned to the elements, a true ghost winery to never reopen. For decades the winery lay silent, as wild vines and towering fig trees sought to reclaim it stone by stone.
More than 130 years later, only the ruins of the winery remain, yet the vineyard’s still-thriving vines have persisted – standing above the fog line. The ghost winery and world-class Monte Rosso Vineyard are perched at nearly 1,300 feet along the spine of the Mayacamas Mountains, straddling Napa and Sonoma valleys. Monte Rosso’s steep hillsides, robed in bright red, iron-rich soils, are set against a dramatic backdrop of manzanita and madrone trees under the expanse of a piercing blue sky.
While Sonoma County is acclaimed—and rightfully so—for its Chardonnays, Pinot Noirs, and Zinfandels, it also produces exceptional Cabernet Sauvignon. Of the region’s 18 American Viticultural Areas, only a handful produce top-notch Cabernet Sauvignon. These appellations include Alexander Valley, Knights Valley, Sonoma Valley and Dry Creek Valley. Sonoma Cabernet Sauvignons made in these appellations can offer a complex array of aromas and flavors. Fruit notes such as blackberry, blackcurrant, cassis, black cherry and raspberry often are accompanied by hints of graphite, dusty earth, cigar box, toast and vanilla. The varietal has a rich history in Sonoma, and some of these Cabernet Sauvignons and Cabernet-based blends rival the best from Napa Valley.