If you are visiting us for the first time, Welcome! The Wine Spies feature one exceptional wine each day – and we only bring you wines that we ourselves seek out and love. Always, the wines are great. Sometimes even better than that, as is the case with today’s wine from Brookdale Vineyards.

SUPERIOR WINE ALERT!

We always feature great wines, but today’s wine is the one of the very best 2004 Cabernet Sauvignons we have ever tasted! Grab some, Operative, before we run out

Savings Alert!

Today’s wine is $9 off per bottle, and with Shipping Included on 6 bottles or more, you’ll save even more. Enter this coupon code at checkout (discount will be shown before you complete your order): CABSPY

Mission Codename: Sustaining the dream

Operative: Agent Red

Objective: Respond to reports that Brookdale Vineyards has an incredible 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon. If the wine proves to be exceptional, secure a quantity for our Operatives

Mission Status: Accomplished, wine acquired!

Current Winery: Brookdale Vineyards

Wine Subject: 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon

Winemaker: Craig MacLean

Backgrounder: 2004 continues to prove that the year was an immense one for California Cabernet Sauvignon. Today’s wine raises the bar on some of the recent incredible ‘04 Cabs we have been tasting and featuring here. If you have tried a 2004 Cab, you know how great they are. If you have not tried this wine, give it a swirl and prepare to be blown away! Read Agent Red’s tasting notes and mission report for a full briefing on this superior Cabernet Sauvignon from today’s small-production winery, Brookdale Vineyards

Wine Spies Tasting Profile:

Look – Deep ruby with a nearly solid heart of dark garnet, a tight and bouncy surface, concentrated color right out to the edges of the wine, and fat, tightly-spaced legs that streak down the sides of the glass

Smell – Lush and dark, with concentrated aromas of forest floor, deep mixed dark berry, black plum, cherry, smoky cedar, vanilla and rose

Feel – Huge and round at first, then the wine does something interesting; it mellows down immediately and presents a crisp freshness while it coats the mouthand leads to its interesting finish (see below)

Taste – Delicious and deeply layered with smoky blackberries and blueberries, black cherry, rose petal, plum and mildest black currant

Finish – This wine goes through a cascade of changes on its finish, with an initial intensity of flavor that gives way to a more fresh and mellow sweetness, finally slowly tapering off – but never losing its intensity

Conclusion – Wow, wow, wow. Just when we thought that we had tasted the best 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon, this beautiful gem of a wine comes along and blows our spy-socks off! Where other 2004 Cabs we have featured here have been great, this wine is absolutely stupendous, with its lush and layered aromas, integrated flavors, fantastic mouth-feel and intense yet refined finish. If you have not tasted a 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon, this is a wine you do not want to miss.

Mission Report:

While I never had the pleasure to meet Mike Seitz, one of the founders of Brookdale Vineyards, his legacy lives on in today’s incredible Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.

This Napa Cabernet Sauvignon exemplifies the wonder that is the 2004 Vintage here in California – and the love and care that has gone into making this wine is apparent at first sip. This is a limited-production wine whose heart goes far deeper than the roots of its originating vineyards.

While doing my background check on the winery I learned first about the people that are responsible for the incredible wines that they produce. The story of how the wines they make today came to be is both moving and inspirational. For more detail on the background of this winemaking team and its inspiration, read the story in their own words, on the left. They tell it far better than I can. I will simply say that this small-production wine is really wonderful.

We were asked recently, by Imbibe Magazine, to recommend 5 superior wines. In the article, we chose to spotlight 5 incredible 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon wines. Soon after our publication deadline we discovered this wine. We tried everything we could to get this wine into the magazine, but could not. This wine belongs on that list, to be certain. It is among the very best Cabernet Sauvignon this side of $150!

Wine Spies Vineyard Check:

The location of the vineyards where the grapes for today’s wine were sourced are TOP SECRET. We regret that we cannot reveal the locations, but please note that the grapes come from some of the finest vineyards in all of Napa Valley.