von Strasser Winery
2009 Spaulding Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon
Cabernet Sauvignon •Spaulding Vineyard
California: Diamond Mountain (Napa)
Mission Briefing
High-95
When Agent Red was offered today’s stunning 95 point - Cellar Selection (from Wine Enthusiast), he nearly crashed his spy car. Today’s von Strasser Winery 2009 Spaulding Vineyard Diamond Mountain District Cabernet Sauvignon is a classic, elegant mountain Cabernet Sauvignon.
This wine is shy, at first, but really begins to open up. As it opens, it becomes more elegant and the fruits begin to shine through, bringing more balance to the earthy aspects of the wine.
We encourage you to try this very highly recommended wine with today’s 2010 Rudy Cabernet Sauvignon. Mix and match to your heart’s content. Just do so before we run out!
Tasting Profile
| Look: | Gorgeous dark garnet through and through, transitioning into a ruby red edge. After a swirl, the wine slowly trails down the glass. |
|---|---|
| Smell: | Rich and lush on the nose, with braised dark plum, blackberry, and black currant mingling with freshly fallen leaves, berry bramble, cocoa powder, clove, sage, and a touch of earthy minerality. |
| Taste: | Bold and concentrated, with superb depth, this wine is a lovely mix of fruit, earth, and spice. Concentrated fruit flavors of stewed dark plum and blackberry are laid overtop sweet tobacco, aged sandalwood cigar box, dark chocolate covered espresso bean, rosemary, black peppercorn, licorice, and a touch of herbal black tea. |
| Finish: | Decanting does wonders for this wine, as the super concentrated flavors need a bit of time to breathe. Afterwards, you will be greatly rewarded with its depth, balance and elegance. This is exactly what you want in a Napa Cabernet. |
| Pairing: | We would recommend a hearty meal of rosemary-black peppercorn encrusted beef rib roast, with porcini mushroom reduction drizzled overtop. |
What the Winery Says
An epic wine with a classic nose and big Cab flavor, the Spaulding is extremely dark and extracted with tremendous depth and concentration. Berry bramble is evident on the nose with a combination of blue and black fruit, intertwined with dark chocolate. The finish is heavenly with blueberry and light cloves that lingers on.
95 Point Review - Wine Enthusiast This has so much rich earth and minerality, it’s like a journey deep into a mine. It’s noted the vines were planted in 1970, and the wine does have that old-vine concentration of fruit in the form of massively intense blackberries. Then there’s the smoky new oak, which adds such a lusciously sweet jacket of buttered toast. Tannic and tight in the way of Diamond Mountain Cabernets, this should begin to come into its own after 2016.
Stephen Tanzer’s International Wine Cellar Review Bright medium red-ruby. Aromas of blueberry, licorice and fresh herbs lifted by a mineral quality. Juicy and fairly intense, with ripe but cool flavors of medicinal dark berries framed by a firm spine of acidity. Finishes tactile and persistent, with a slight green edge. This one appears to have the intensity to harmonize with bottle aging.
- Winemaker
- Rudy von Strasser
- Accolades
- 95 Points - Wine Enthusiast
- Appellation
- Diamond Mountain District, Napa Valley, California
- Vineyard
- Spaulding Vineyard
- ABV
- 14.1%
About the Winery
Shortly after their marriage in 1989, Rudy and Rita von Strasser set out looking for a vineyard property to make their home. Having already developed a deep passion and talent for producing Cabernet Sauvignon, Rudy was committed that the property must be in a microclimate blessed with the ability to grow and produce the finest red wines in Napa Valley; wines worthy to carry the von Strasser family name. Serendipitously, the old Roddis Estate Winery on Diamond Mountain had just been put on the market, and in the spring of 1990, the von Strasser label was born.
As you drive up Diamond Mountain Road, you leave the valley floor and the crowds behind you and enter a property which many describe as “early Californian.” However, the beauty of the setting is second only to the quality of the wine and personalized attention you will receive.
Winemaker Rudy von Strasser
Owner/Winemaker Rudy von Strasser is a first generation American citizen; his mother is from Hungary and his father is an Austria. He studied winemaking at UC Davis, and after an internship at Chateau Lafite-Rothschild Rudy worked as Enologist at Napa Valley’s Trefethen Family Vineyards for two years, and as Assistant Winemaker at Newton Vineyard for three years. In 1990 Rudy and his wife Rita started their eponymous winery in Napa Valley’s Diamond Mountain District, and quickly became famous for their age-worthy single-vineyard Cabernet Sauvignons.
Rudy’s winemaking philosophy centers on the concept that great wines are created in the vineyard and not in the winery. His most important winemaking tool is his palate: his ability to understand and analyze each vineyard’s wine potential through the tasting of the grapes. All of the grapes used in the von Strasser label are picked at their optimum ripeness when the flavors are peaking and the tannins have become ripe and soft. The end result is wine of great extract and a tannin complex which is both huge and soft at the same time. The resultant mouth feel is often described as being “chewy”, and makes these hillside wines both approachable when young, yet also worthy of further development with age.