Cabernet Sauvignon Wine Reviews
About.com Wine / Stacy Slinkard / November 2011
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AOL's Wine Column
"A truly artisanal wine...a top pick for the holidays"
For those that believe all special occasions call for a Cab, the 2005 Smith-Madrone is the perfect all-American Cab to call on for celebrating Thanksgiving. Limited production, dry-farmed and crafted by two brothers, Stuart and Charles Smith, this Cab is remarkable for its concentration, intensity, overall balance and final finesse. Bringing a truly artisanal wine to the table with a mix of red and black fruit, plenty of power and an undeniable presence, this is a top pick for the holidays.
November 2011 Read full article
Gabe Sasso's Blog / August 30, 2011
"...a remarkably even-keeled, perfectly proportionate Cabernet Sauvignon."
... Last year I visited Smith-Madrone on Spring Mountain for the first time and I was knocked out. Their wines, their property and their personalities are all perfectly authentic examples of some of the very best of what Napa Valley has to offer. Today I’ll look at their current release of Cabernet Sauvignon. ...
Red berry and bramble aromas fill the nose of this Cabernet Sauvignon. The palate is deep and layered with a bevy of flavors. Cherries (both red and black), bits of herb and earth are the primary characteristics that surfaced when I first sipped this wine, Minerals such as flint and hints of pencil lead emerge on the finish along with dark cocoa, espresso and continued earth. The 2005 Smith-Madrone Cabernet Sauvignon is a remarkably even-keeled, perfectly proportionate Cabernet Sauvignon. From start to finish it shows off rich, textured flavors and deep layers of fruit and spice that reward sipping over a long evening. This wine from Stuart and Charles Smith is rather delicious now, particularly after an hour or so in the decanter. However it’s quite age-worthy and will improve under proper storage conditions for the next decade at minimum and drink well for another 5 or so after that. The bottom line is that the 2005 vintage of Smith-Madrone Cabernet Sauvignon in a tremendous example of why this particular grape and Napa Valley are synonymous. It’s also an exceptional value. In a valley filled with many lofty price tags, the cost of this wine is a steal for the quality you’re getting in the bottle relative to many other examples. The sticker may say $45 but the taste and quality of this wine says $75.
WineWiseWeb blog, by Rich Cook / August 23, 2011
"This is classic, ageworthy Napa Cabernet."
2005 Cabernet: Old School Delight
Winemakers/proprietors Stuart and Charles Smith are dedicated to making quality wines at fair prices that show a sense of time and place and solid varietal character. This wine is a shining example of this focus. The nose exhibits blackberry, black cherry, bell pepper, dried herbs, cassis and light toasted oak. The palate brings direct delivery of the nose elements with solid acidity, supple tannins and a depth and richness not commonly seen in Napa Cabs these days. All the flavor elements remain through the long complex finish. This is classic, ageworthy Napa Cabernet.
Pulling Corks and Forks Blog / Sandy Wasserman / August 21, 2011
"A Cab with finesse and structure"
...Soft and lush at the beginning, with good black cherry and currant fruit and medium tannins this wine has nice character and complexity. A long lingering finish on the back of the palate, "this is one of the best Cabs I've had all year," said my drinking companion. This is not a big Cab, with huge tannins but a Cab. with finesse and structure. With less than 1,500 cases of the 05 produced this bottle is a steal at approximately $45. If you can find it make sure you grab a bottle or 2 and while at it if you can find their Chardonnay or Riesling one should stock up on those too.
New York Wine Salon Blog / August 12, 2011
"Napa Cab done right"
Smith-Madrone 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon
This economic turmoil has me hankering for simpler times, and I like to think that this is how they made Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon back in the day. Ripe but not too ripe, assertive but balanced, it’s like a little bit of Americana in a glass.You could spend some time unpacking the aromas (licorice, plum and tobacco, for starters), but the best course of action here is just to drink the damn thing—preferably accompanied by a nice, juicy steak.
Fred Koeppel / Bigger Than Your Head Blog /July 4, 2011
“Excellent”
2005 Cabernet Sauvignon “...youʼll detect notes of cedar-infused, spiced and macerated black currants and dried black cherries with an under-tone of plum. Burgeoning through that scope, however, will be elements of briers and brambles, forest floor and graphite-like minerality, walnut-shell and new leather. Slowly, slowly, the wine offers touches of mint, lavender and licorice, tobacco and lead pencil, black olive, dried thyme and a bit of rosemaryʼs slightly heady resiny quality. Plums and mulberries seep into this sharply etched profile that delves as deeply into the wineʼs measureless expanse as the roots in the vineyard penetrate into the mountainside, while the finish is tenaciously dense, granitic and brooding. 14.2 percent alcohol. Production was 1,459 cases. Best from 2012 or ʼ14 through 2018 to ʼ20. Excellent. About $45.”
Read full post "Old-School California Cabernet, XIII: Smith-Madrone"
WineLog.net / Ward Kadel / July 2011
“Phenomenal effort...crazy good value!”
The '05 Smith-Madrone Cab is a phenomenal effort. Full of balance and restrained power, this shows off deep black fruit, newer leather and great earth to go with its medium acidity and firm but fine tannins. Crazy good value for the cost and it garnered two WKBadges: QPRWK & OldWorldWK. Cheers!
Dan Berger’s Vintage Experiences / April 14, 2011
2005 Cabernet Sauvignon: Exceptional, Olive and traces of herbs mark the fascinating aroma of Cabernet (!) and dark cherry fruit, which this Spring Mountain property has always delivered. Superb balance and a wine that is just beginning to show its aging potential.
Robert Whitley / WineReviewOnline.com / March 23, 2011
"This is the sort of young Cabernet I prize."
2005 Cabernet Sauvignon
“...a Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon that recently impressed me, the 2005 Smith-Madrone. This is the sort of young Cabernet I prize. It has firm structure, is well balanced, and another five to six years in my cellar would be beneficial. Of course, I expect nothing less from the Smith brothers, Charlie and Stuart, who’ve been making great Cab up on Spring Mountain for the past quarter-century. They are farmers, for one thing, and don’t have their finger to the wind to determine which way the critics— yes, people like me—are leaning. They just do what they do best: get their grapes ripe, don’t overdo it, and sell their wine at a fair price.
I remember when the cost of new French oak barrels spiked a few years ago. Rather than absorb the financial blow and raise prices, Smith-Madrone switched to less costly American oak. “Hey,” Stu Smith told me at the time, “if it’s good enough for Silver Oak.” Indeed, the Smith-Madrone wines are as good as ever. The Chardonnay is ripe but restrained, and the Riesling is among the finest made in America. And if Silver Oak is the model for their Cabernet, well, that’s not such a bad thing.”
Bon Appetit Magazine / February 2011 /Heather John
"California Cabs Worth Catching; Eight Elegant Hillside Wines"
Smith Madrone Cabernet 2004: black cherry flavors with herbal notes and aromas of cedar and violets. Article around the review: Backbreak Mountain, when a wine writer gets up from behind the keyboard and works a Napa Valley vineyard, she learns that great grapes, soil and toil go into every bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon.
Vinography Wine Blog / January 10, 2009
...This Cabernet is made from the estate's 32-year-old, dry-farmed vines at the top of Spring Mountain. It ages for 22 months in new American Oak barrels (an unusual choice for both Napa and for Cabernet), and is bottled unfined and unfiltered. After bottling the winery likes to hang onto it for a while, which means this 2003 is the current release (the 2004 will hit the market in a couple of months). ...
Tasting Notes:
Dark ruby in color, this wine has a beautiful nose of plum, chocolate, and heady cedar aromas. In the mouth it is soft and silky on the tongue, with a suprisingly lightness for Napa Cabernet -- a bruiser this is most certainly not. The core flavors are black cherry and chocolate, and they dance, juicy on the tongue thanks to great acidity and faint, powdery tannins that simply play a background note to the overall bright quality of the wine. Incredibly easy to drink (a whole bottle).Overall Score: between 9 and 9.5
Colorado Wine News - (April-June 2008, Vol. 18, No. 2)
2003 Cabernet Sauvignon contains about 10% merlot and 8% cabernet franc and was aged for 22 months in new American oak. It has inviting aromas of star anise, cassis, black raspberry, wet earth and smoke. All continue as nicely ripe but slightly tart flavors laced with dry tannin and finish medium-broad and medium-long. This is a well-balanced, structured and integrated wine which will complement food now and will be even better if you give it another year in the bottle to moderate the tannins.
Wine Enthusiast Magazine / May 2008
May
2008
2003 Cabernet Sauvignon
86 points
The winery held this Cab back longer than most. Tasted in late 2007, it was quite soft and immediately drinkable. The flavors are rich and ripe, suggesting red cherries, cassis, licorice, cola and milk chocolate.
From: Daniel Duane, Wednesday, April 16, 2008, http://www.chow.com/tastingnotes/5324
About that 2003 Cab...
...I had a sample of his 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon recently... And the wine brought me immense satisfaction: Every sip was a little journey, enriching and interesting and yet well balanced and not at all challenging. I thought it was fabulous.
Here’s Stu’s take on the 2003:
“Well, it’s unfined and unfiltered, it’s still evolving, it’s got a little Cab Franc, a little Merlot. ... It’s a big wine, an interesting complex wine, not excessively tannic. Some people think it’s excessively soft, but it gets people talking about the wine. It’s also a wine that gives people a lot of pleasure. It’s what I think a wine really should be: It makes a statement, it has character, and yet it’s not over the top. My brother liked it better than I did in the beginning; it’s a wine that’s really evolved in the last couple of years being in the bottle. It’s got a good future ahead of it; I think they’ll last 15 years or more.”
Robert Whitley February 13, 2008
Rating: 91
Smith-Madrone 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon, Spring Mountain District ($40): This wine has been historically underrated, lost in the attention heaped on more expensive and trendy Napa Valley cabs. Could be because it's truly a mountain cab, crafted from vineyards on the cooler side of the Valley and thus slightly more austere in its youth than the flashier, jammier wines from the eastern hills above the valley floor. This vintage shows excellent depth and structure, complex dark-fruited aromas with a touch of earthiness, and fine tannins. I suspect it will improve over the next seven to 10 years.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20080213/news_1f13whitley.html
Dan Berger’s Vintage Experiences: The Weekly Wine Commentary
Review of 2003 Smith-Madrone Cabernet Sauvignon
(Volume XII, Issue 45 January 17, 2008)
Exceptional..
Lean, classic Napa Valley herb/dust and cherry aroma, with a structure I haven’t seen in years: Great to age! Or try now with aeration and a steak. A superb look back to an era when many Cabs showed structure. Not for those who want plushness.
