Trefethen Cabernet Sauvignon (1.5 Liter Magnum) 2018

Professional Ratings

• 97 Decanter
  Decanter World Wide Wine Awards- Best in Show For the second year running, it’s an Oak Knoll Cabernet which has carried the Best In Show torch for the Napa, underlining the fact that this spot in the Valley seems to be ideal for mingling Napa’s diagnostic generosity and depth with an expressive finesse and an approachability which both appeals to our judges and chimes with the wine world’s zeitgeist. The wine is still dark black-purple, and the aromatic currant and berry fruits are blue, tender and enticing, with skilled and seamless oak integration. On the palate, the wine has weight and depth -- but what you really notice in this 2018 vintage is its purity and inner energy; the weight and depth follow on after, but don’t overwhelm from the start. The seamless integration of acidity and brisk tannin, too, is another mouthwatering hallmark -- of skilled winemaking, or the place? Who’s to say?
• 92 Wine & Spirits

  The Trefethen family farms 400 acres of vines on Oak Knoll Road, and at an additional 40 acres focused on Bordeaux varieties at Hill- spring, above the fog line in the Mayacamas Mountains. They emphasize the cool side of Napa Valley in this savory cabernet with herbal details and violet scents. Its muscular tannins build on the wine’s youthful strength without adding weight. Rather than viscous, this is elegant and ready to decant for dinner, whether tonight or in two years or ten.

• 91 Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
  COMMENTARY: The 2018 Trefethen Cabernet Sauvignon captures the essence of this cooler AVA in the Napa Valley. TASTING NOTES: This wine combines aromas and flavors of dried herbs, earth, and black fruit. Enjoy it with a lightly spiced meat stew. (Tasted: April 21, 2021, San Francisco, CA)
• 90 Connoisseurs' Guide

  10% Petit Verdot; 3% Merlot; 2% Malbec; 1% Cabernet Franc. Deep and very well-defined curranty fruit is the centerpiece here and is joined by both lovely accents of mildly creamy oak and the lightly loamy traits emblematic of Cabernet Sauvignons from the Napa Valley floor. Fleshy, moderately full and firmed by the pushy presence of youthful tannins, the wine toughens a touch in the latter going, though no more than is expected of a good Cabernet of its age, and, if a half-decade of patience will result in a more supple wine, this one has the right pieces in the right places to age beautifully and gain in polish and complexity for twice as long.