Steven Kent The Premier Cabernet Sauvignon 2018
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Wine
Enthusiast -
James
Suckling -
Connoisseurs'
Guide
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Aromatically dominated by black fruits (plum and brambly blackberry), bay leaf, sage, purple iris, wet soil, and pencil lead. On entry, this wine explodes with fresh mixed fruits and is supported with significant tannin and acid structure. The Steven Kent style is very evident in the mid-palate of this wine: though tight and big and tannic, it still shows a lovely pace — an acid driven characteristic that embodies freshness, balance, and length. While the 2017 Premier Cabernet Sauvignon was a wine of power and structure, 2018 is a wine which showcases elegance, finesse, and sophistication. This wine will age beautifully and gain even more complexity with time. Like all other vintages of the Premier, this wine was made with a deftness and structure that will reward medium to long-term aging.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
A mint and cinnamon aroma and deep, concentrated, black fruit flavors make a great combo in this moderately tannic, full-bodied and well-balanced wine. Fine grained tannins rope in the exuberant black fruits and oak spices for a fine sense of layering and integration. Best through at least 2028.
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James Suckling
Pleasant aromas of redcurrants, blackcurrants, crushed blackberries, sage and violets. Medium-to full-bodied with silky tannins. Great intensity here, not overdone but steady and persistent. A bright note of currants is followed by leather and gravel. Nicely composed, with succulent fruit and complex black-tea flavor.
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Connoisseurs' Guide
This very successful producer of Livermore Valley wines scores once again with this full-bodied, reasonably well-balanced, big wine. Its aromas, while still a bit closed-in, smell of ripe currants and notes of black cherry and rich loam in the background. It is supple at entry and fairly mouthfilling in both flavor and texture, yet, at the same time avoids the coarseness that can attend wines of its size. Its concentration shows more clearly on the palate, and the tannins that do extend into the finish call for nothing more than a bit of cellaring.
Livermore Valley has a long, dedicated history of growing the “Bordeaux” varietals, and in particular Cabernet Sauvignon. In the 1880s, pioneering winegrowers began to discover the potential of the Livermore Valley region. Then, as today, L.V.’s climate and soils closely resemble those of Bordeaux’s famed left bank of the Gironde. By the turn of the last century, Livermore Valley was already far ahead of its Napa Valley neighbor in specializing in the Bordeaux varieties. Our goal at Steven Kent is to carry on that tradition.
They have worked joyously and strenuously to know their vineyards; to learn how their fruit expresses itself from those sites; to discover the best winemaking and barrel regimens that translates those grapes into world-class vintages. They are very gratified that customers, critics, and collectors alike consider our “historic Cabernet” to be an essential addition to their table, their “best of lists,” and their cellars”.
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.
A warm sub-appellation of the greater San Francisco Bay AVA (American Viticultural Area), Livermore Valley mainly hides behind the shielding effects of the bay’s eastern hills. However, late afternoon winds cool down summer nights as daytime heat rises from the Central Valley in the east, pulling the cold, foggy, bay air inland. This cooler evening air permeates the Livermore Valley's foothills, making this an ideal environment for the development of phenolic ripeness and concentration in its wine grapes.
The Livermore Valley is one of California's oldest wine regions and has played a crucial role in shaping California's wine industry. Spanish missionaries planted the first wine grapes in the Livermore Valley in the 1760s. Then in the mid 1800s, a man named Robert Livermore planted the area’s first commercial vineyards. Winemaker pioneer C. H. Wente arrived a few years later; today the Wente Chardonnay clone is the source of a majority of California Chardonnay. Furthermore, James Concannon and the Wetmore brothers recognized the virtues of the area’s Bordeaux-like gravel soils and dedicated themselves to making high quality wine from Bordeaux varieties. Today the area is also known for high quality Petite Sirah.