Erba Mountainside Vineyards
2004 Cabernet Sauvignon
Cabernet Sauvignon
California: Napa Valley
Mission Briefing
Mountain High
- Final Assessment
- Today’s 94 Point (Wine Enthusiast) is a table-worthy and cellar-worthy wine that we offer to you with our heartiest recommendation. Classic Napa Valley, this high-elevation Cabernet is grown in optimum conditions, with strong daytime sunlight and ample evening cooling. Juicy, plush and aromatic, this wine delights all of the sense. A very long, miner-laden finish with a hint of spice and graphite at the tail end encourages the drinker to take long, thoughtful pauses between sips.
Enjoy this prized wine now, but be sure to lay a few bottles down for the next several years - or more. Pair this very food-friendly wine with a hearty grilled steak, pot roast or braised short ribs.
Tasting Profile
| Look: | Viewed side-on, this wine shows dark burgundy hues, with magenta edges. Spin the wine, though, and it looks like dark garnet. After the wine settles, viscous legs march slowly down the glass wall, streaking the glass with burgundy coloring. |
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| Smell: | Bold blackberry and black cherry are well out in front. These are closely followed by savory spices, herbs and tobacco leaf. As the wine breathes, it opens up to reveal cedar bark, black pepper, toasty vanilla and graphite. |
| Taste: | Dark and rich, with bold black cherry, blackberry and wild strawberry. After the wine breathes for a while, it expands, revealing additional flavors of hard leather, tobacco leaf, red plum, dried red flower petals, dried cranberry and graphite. |
| Finish: | Very long and packed with red and black fruit flavors. Black fruit gives way to red fruit, very gradually. Red fruits sustain for a long time, ultimately succumbing to earthy notes of spice, flowers, tobacco and dry minerals. |
| Pairing: |